Synful
by auri mynonys
Summary: Syndrome returns, but instead of seeking vengeance on the Incredibles, he declares himself the nemesis of a new Super and an old friend. Can they resolve their differences? SyndromeOC. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** "Synful"

**Pairing:** Syndrome/OC

**Rating:** PG-13, for now. Will probably become an R.

**Summary:** Syndrome reappears after his supposed demise ready to make the Supers' lives difficult. But instead of going after his hated enemies, the Incredibles, Syndrome declares himself the official nemesis of a more recent Super, known as Static. It becomes clear that Syndrome and Static have met before, and are battling not only each other but also events and troubles from their past. Is he her nemesis, or her hero?

**Warnings:** Well, what with the title and all… cheesy puns, language, an original character and probably some smut. Hey, at least there's a semi-decent plot, right?

**Setting:** Post-Incredibles, various places. Metroville and Nomanisan, mostly.

**Category:** Action/Adventure/Romance/Angst

- - - - - - - - - -

_I know you had to go away, I died just a little_

_And I feel it now, you're the one I need_

_I believe that I would cry just a little just to have you back now_

_Here with me…_

- **"Here with Me" by Michelle Branch**

The ocean sparkled like a thousand sapphires under the glowing sun. Mirage watched the deep blue passing beneath her through the window on the jet, piloted by two silent men whose faces she could not see. They wore the gray uniforms and visors of guards - guards she knew only too well.

Two other guards sat beside her, guns on their knees as a warning to her: _You run, we shoot. You're dead._ There were several other almost identical looking men sitting in other positions around the jet. Two of them were playing a game of chess and talking in low voices, laughing occasionally. It seemed to be the only sign that these men were human at all. The others all sat in stoic silence, hands on their guns, watching their prisoner tensely.

Mirage had been attempting to ignore them the entire ride. She knew who they belonged to, of course, and she knew exactly where she was going. But she didn't want to think about it - not yet.

It had been almost a year since Syndrome's terrible death in the jet explosion. Mirage had been quite uncertain how she felt about the fact that her previous employer and ex-lover was dead. Part of her told her smugly, _He deserved it. He killed; he sought revenge when he should have forgiven. He deserved to die._

But there was another voice that said, _You deserved it too. You killed right along with him. You wanted revenge on the Supers, too. He was not the only one who was selfish. And he had so many problems… so many fears, that no one knew but you… if you'd been a better person you would have helped him overcome, instead of just sitting there and aiding him like you did. You don't want him dead. You miss him. You want him back._

"Approaching Nomanisan," the pilot's voice announced over a radio. Mirage stiffened, and the guards' grip on their guns tightened. The two men who had been playing chess quit immediately after this message and lifted their guns, eyeing Mirage nervously.

The island came into view. Mirage stared at it. It was the last place she had ever expected to see again. Her hands, neatly folded in her lap, began to twist fearfully. She turned to the guard beside her and asked, "What does he want with me, Jason?"

Jason shrugged. "No idea," he said, smiling sympathetically. "He doesn't tell us much, you know. But he seems pretty upset about something."

Mirage shuddered. "Great," she muttered. "He's going to kill me."

"If he wanted you dead," the guard at the end of the row said, "We would have killed you already."

"That's certainly comforting," Mirage snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and turning to stare out the window again.

Nomanisan was much closer now. They circled the steaming volcano, and the pilot radioed in. "Jet 06660 requesting permission to land."

There was silence on the end of the line. For one tense moment, Mirage thought that they were going to be shot down by missiles, but then a familiar voice came over the line. "You've got her?"

"Yes, sir," the pilot said. He sounded immensely relieved; apparently he had believed, like Mirage, that they were all about to die. "She's on board."

"Good work. Landing platform 1313."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll be meeting you down there; don't let her give you the slip."

"We won't, sir."

"Good."

The line went dead, and the jet began to plummet. Mirage's hands flew to the armrests of her chair. She gripped them so hard her knuckles went white as the jet plunged downwards. It pulled up abruptly, and then hovered lightly a few feet above the ground. After a few more seconds it landed lightly on the platform.

The guards stood up. "Let's go," Jason said tersely.

Mirage glanced out her window before standing up. She saw a line of more guards in gray, and another, quite distinct figure. Before she could get a better look, Jason gripped her arm and pulled her to her feet. "Come _on_," he said nervously. "I really don't want to make him anymore pissed than he already is."

Mirage swallowed hard and stood. She knew what he was like when he was pissed. She followed the line of guards to and down the ramp. She almost didn't dare to look up, although she already knew he was standing right in front of her. The guards lined up behind her, and Jason announced, "Mirage, sir."

"I know who she is, Jason," he said testily. After a moment of silence, he said, "Well?"

Mirage still didn't look up. "Well what?" she said softly. "You're the one who brought me here, Syndrome."

He reached out and caught her chin in his hand. He lifted her head, forcing her eyes to meet his. He still had very wide, aqua blue eyes and freckles across the bridge of his nose. His hair still stood straight up in a bright shock of red. He had several burn marks on his face and neck, and Mirage guessed there were many more in other places on his body. He was still dressed in a supersuit, but it was different than the original. It was still a very deep black, but there was an aqua blue diamond across the chest, and in the center of the diamond was a black 'S.' His gloves, Mirage noted, were also black, as were his boots. There was a blue belt around his waist, covered with various buttons and devices. Mirage could guess that they were all new, high-tech weapons he could use against his enemies. He had no cape.

"You don't look very happy to see me," Syndrome told her in a deathly quiet voice.

She shrugged slightly. "I can't say I've missed you very much," she said.

Syndrome laughed bitterly. "Yeah, you made that _very_ apparent when the Incredibles were here," he said icily. "You set them free… not once, but _twice_. Talk about betrayal. After everything I did for you, too."

"You would have let him _kill_ me!" Mirage cried, angrily trying to brush the tears that sprang to her eyes away. "You didn't care about me at all, so why should I have cared about you and your worthless plans?"

"I would remind you that you were a pivotal part of making those plans happen," Syndrome snapped furiously. He drew a deep breath, as though to calm down. "Look," he said, "That really isn't why I brought you here. I have something important to show you."

Mirage's eyebrows shot up. "Something important?" she said. "Does it have to do with revenge on the Incredibles?"

Syndrome waved a hand. "Not remotely," he said impatiently. He grabbed Mirage's tiny wrist and started to pull her after him, reminding her of a little boy anxious to show a friend an exciting new toy. "But it _will_ surprise you, I guarantee that. And it'll explain a lot, too."

"Explain a lot of what?" Mirage demanded.

"You'll see."

She sighed, but followed him without further questioning into the familiar halls of the Nomanisan lair.

Everything looked surprisingly different. Things seemed to have been redecorated since Mirage had last been there. Of course, the last time she had been present was when the government had flown in and destroyed almost everything on the island. She had showed them where all of the buildings were, so that they could strip them of inventions and weaponry and such. It appeared that Syndrome had managed to repair most of the damage. Of course, there were still spots where once could see the destruction the lair had undergone. Several guards were repairing a section of wall that was crushed inward, with several sparking wires hanging out of it. Syndrome stopped to speak briefly with them, and then he and his former sidekick continued without further conversation.

After a long walk through Nomanisan's many corridors, the finally reached a room filled with computer terminals. Mirage recognized this as Syndrome's research lab. Here was where he found and stored information on Supers, their nemeses, their sidekicks, their civilian identities, and almost anything else you could imagine that dealt with Superheroes. He pulled her over to a specific computer terminal, but forced her to close her eyes while he typed in the password. When she opened them, she saw him flipping through various screens with many Supers she didn't recognized.

"I don't remember any of those," she said, leaning over his shoulder to watch.

"They're all newer Supers," Syndrome told her. "Kids and teens, mostly, who were born with superpowers but were too young to actually be famous before the Supers were banned. Obviously, you know the ban's been removed, and most of them can, so to speak, 'come out of the closet.'"

"So how is this relevant to anything?" Mirage questioned.

Syndrome stopped on a particular screen and pointed to the super. "Look at her," he commanded.

Mirage studied her closely, but saw nothing relevant about her. She had beautiful, shiny, fire truck red hair, but her eyes were hidden behind a visor. Her uniform was black and yellow, with a black lightning bolt as her insignia. She appeared to be sparking with bright yellow lightning. Above the picture, a name flashed: Static. "So?" Mirage said in exasperation.

Syndrome clicked on a link marked "Civilian Identity." A new picture appeared, along with a different name, and this time, Mirage saw what was relevant. Her hand flew to her mouth.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "It's Bex!"

Syndrome looked back at her and nodded. "Bingo," he said.

A few minutes later, Mirage was still attempting to recover from this knowledge. "But… but Bex… she refused to work for us!" she exclaimed.

"Because she's a super," Syndrome said evenly. "And so was her father."

"But I'm a super!" Mirage cried. "And I was willing to stay!"

"Yeah, but you never told _her_ that," Syndrome said with a shrug. "Besides, you don't use your powers much."

Mirage nodded slightly. "I still can't believe she didn't tell us," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "We were her best friends!"

"I know," Syndrome said darkly. "I don't understand it, either. I mean, she could have told _me_ of all people!"

"Is she working with the other Supers now?"

Syndrome nodded. "She's gone on several superb rescue efforts," he said, bringing up another file on the computer screen. "She began by helping the Incredibles destroy the Underminer, but just recently she single-handedly wiped a supervillain named Snakeskin off the earth, and she did the same with a supervillainess named Dark Angel. She's very widely respected, but she's got no set nemesis."

Mirage suddenly guessed exactly what Syndrome was planning. "You aren't going to go after _her_, are you?"

Syndrome raised his eyebrows. "Why not?" he said. "She abandoned me, after all."

"Well, you could at least attempt to find out why!" Mirage cried, leaping to her feet. "You two were best friends since you were children! Everyone thought the pair of you were going to get married someday!"

Syndrome looked away. "Yeah, they weren't the only ones," he said bitterly.

Mirage chewed her lip. "Syndrome, don't hurt her," she said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure she didn't mean you any harm."

Syndrome stared at the picture on the computer screen. "I wish I were as sure as you," he said unhappily.

**Thoughts anyone? Drop me a line and tell me your thoughts on my latest Incredibles fic. And try not to get confused, if you've been reading "Define Hero" - Kauri Bexer is technically the same character, but "Define Hero" has nothing to do with this fic. Just so y'all know. Auri Mynonys**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yay Gabby! My only reviewer! Thank you for reading this… I know how un-fond you are of Syndrome… but I promise you that you will not be disappointed by this story. The characters have a lot more layers to them. And I think I changed Eric's last name in this one… and in answer to a review from ages ago on Define Hero, I probably took the name from "the" Erik, but he's not supposed to be like him in any way, shape, or form. Don't be sympathetic to him, Gabby. Just don't be. And to everyone else who happens to be checking out this story - it's not as bad as the porn-flick title makes it sound (thanks Gabby), I promise. Read and review people!**

- - - - - - - - -

_I'm starting to trip_

_I'm losing my grip, and_

_I'm in this thing alone…_

**_- _****"Losing Grip" by Avril Lavigne**

Static was a fairly cynical Super. She did not feel as though she belonged in either the world of normal people or the world of the Supers. Because she was younger and less experienced, older Supers tended to look down on her and her generation. Her generation of Supers tended to dislike the fact that she had a quirky personality and wouldn't speak to most of them, largely because she was too shy. And, obviously, it was hard enough living a normal life as a civilian when you could stick your finger in an electrical socket and not get hurt at all.

Of course, Static had other reasons for being cynical - like her boyfriend, a super called Elemental. His real name was Eric Anderson, and he had often bitched to her about how it wasn't fair that the world hated them, especially since they had once been so good at saving it. Never mind that they'd been little children then. Never mind that he was a miserable excuse for a hero - always drunk and focusing on himself, never paying attention to her or the world's problems. None of that mattered to him. Nothing mattered at all, except being recognized for his extraordinary talent.

Static just wished it would all go away sometimes.

Like today, for example, this lovely, sunny Saturday when she should have been out in the park, sitting under the shade of a tree and reading a good Terry Pratchett novel. But because she was a Super, she had a duty to the public, a duty to the greater good, and she had to give up that peace and quiet so that she could kick the sorry ass of a miserable supervillain.

Static had been called in that morning by Mr. Incredible, who had frantically told her the details as she rushed to pull on her supersuit while stumbling over various and sundry beer bottles and old pizza carry-out containers. She had almost woken Elemental to go help her, but she knew he would have a killer hangover, and wouldn't be in a good enough mood to fight evil. She had continued listening to Mr. Incredible on her cell phone as she drove in her junky car towards the sight of the battle

Mr. Incredible had given her very brief details about the supervillain. He was sort of boyish in appearance, and he had crazy red hair that stood straight up. He was currently wearing an entirely black costume, except for a large, aqua diamond emblem emblazoned with an 'S' in its center on his chest. He wore rocket boots that enabled him to fly, and he wore gloves that shot something known as 'zero-point' energy, which froze whoever was unfortunate enough to be caught in the beam in place.

And then there was the fact that this supervillain was supposed to be dead. Was that not what Mr. Incredible had told everyone? _We saw the jet explode. There was no way that anyone could have survived it._

And yet, Static thought dryly, there he was, flying around in the typical spandex-like suit, although she noticed that he lacked the cape that had apparently defeated him before. _A guy who learns from his mistakes. Amazing._

Static parked close to the Incredimobile, which had made its way there before she could (she decided that this would be to The Dash's credit.) Without hesitating, she leapt out of the vehicle and ran towards the scene of devastation and chaos where the supervillain who Mr. Incredible had called Syndrome was proudly hovering over his maniac robot.

She saw his head turn in her direction. She stopped and raised her arms threateningly, allowing bits of energy to sparkle at the edge of her fingertips. She could swear she saw him smirking. Suddenly, she was surrounded in a beam of bluish light, and she found that the only part of her able to move was her eyes.

_Damn! Zero-point energy!_

Syndrome flew towards her, moving her backwards. He took her and threw her neatly against a building. Gasping in pain and almost unconscious from the blow, she slid down the wall and hit the ground with hard _thud_! _Shit,_ she thought miserably. _That's gonna hurt in the morning._

"Hellooo, baby!"

Static couldn't see the speaker and didn't know his voice, but it seemed to fit well enough with Syndrome's face, so she reached up and punched whoever had made the comment in the nose. She heard a muffled curse, and then she was zero-pointed again.

"That wasn't very nice," Syndrome said, rubbing his now-bleeding nose. He dropped Static on the ground. She stood up, turned, and made an attempt to zap him with her electric lightning. But before the stuff could hit him, a large, aqua blue shield exploded around him, and the energy bounced back at her with a painful shock. She stumbled back against the wall and slumped.

"Listen, sweetheart - " he started.

"Call me sweetheart again, and I'll bitch slap you so hard you'll fly all the way to whatever God-forsaken island you live on," Static growled.

Syndrome grinned. "I expected you to be a challenge."

Static sat up a little more and looked at her enemy quizzically. "You did?"

Syndrome zero-pointed her again. Static moved her eyes in a way to suggest that she was saying, _Why the hell did you do that! I didn't even hit you!_

"I don't have time to discuss all the details with you now," Syndrome said, shrugging casually. "But you can know this one important thing: it's no longer the Incredibles I'm after. I'm now _your_ nemesis. I'll let you announce that to the general public yourself, since you heroes enjoy your time in the spotlight."

He lifted her high, and then threw her, hard, to the ground. She groaned miserably, but forced herself to stand up. She glared at him icily. "Why me?" she demanded.

He grinned impishly. "I liked your hair color."

Before Static could respond, he ignited his rocket boots and took off into the air. His robot and several police helicopters, all of which were shot down by jets apparently occupied by Syndrome's various lackeys, closely followed him.

Static watched him depart with an air of detachment. When Mr. Incredible came charging up to her, and gasped out, "What just happened?" she just shrugged slightly.

"Seems like an awfully dramatic way to announce he's picked me as his new nemesis," she said casually, and then turned and started to walk off.

**Ta-da! Chapter two is completed! I have eight chapters written so far… that will probably have increased by the end of the night, though. So I will be updating rapidly, probably. Like I said in the beginning author's note - READ AND REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, I know people are reading this story… they just refuse to review. :angry face: Come on, people. I post this here so that you can tell me what you think. I'd like an opinion besides Gabby's, if you wouldn't mind so much. But, since Gabby is the only reviewer thus far, and she's refusing to read fanfiction right now (buffer zones, Gabby, buffer zones), I guess I'll just respond to her…**

**_Gabbifer Queen of Darkness Whose Soul is more Black and Riddled with Evil than Any Creature In Heaven, Hell, or Earth:_**** Now check out THAT nickname, Gabby. I think I'm going to have to abbreviate that one. (GQoDWSimBaRwEtACiHHoE. Hmmm. At the end it looks like I'm calling you a ho. HA! Ho.) Anyway, thank you for reviewing my story, apparently you're the only one who loves me on the entire face of the earth. J/K, of course. But anyway… I'm glad you like this fic despite its God-awful title. The characters are definitely more complex here than they are in "Define Hero"… this story just lends itself to complexity, I think. And not to follow the bouncing ball of conversation, but guess what I'm listening to, in case you were curious? Your WEST SIDE STORY soundtrack! Isn't that exciting!**

**Okay, I'm done. READ AND REVIEW PEOPLE! NOT JUST READ! Pretty please? Pretty please with a cherry on top? Pretty please with a cherry, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and sprinkles?**

- - - - - - - - - -

_Goodbye to you… goodbye to everything that I knew_

_You were the one I loved_

_The one thing that I tried to hold on to…_

**_- _****"Goodbye To You" by Michelle Branch**

"I don't get it," Bob Parr said later as his family and Kauri Bexer, now in civilian wear, sat in the Parr's living room watching the five o' clock news.

"_…The supervillain Syndrome, who was previously thought dead, apparently reappeared to announce that he has switched targets. Syndrome, while battling with Super newcomer Static, told her that he was no longer seeking vengeance on the Incredibles, and that he had selected her as his next project…_"

"Why would he go after _you_?" Violet asked. Quickly, she added, "I didn't mean that the way it sounded…"

Kauri just shrugged. "I have no idea, Vi," she said. "He told me he liked my hair color, but that can't be the only reason."

"That'd be a stupid reason, if that was it," Dash muttered. "Can we eat dinner now?"

"In a minute, honey," Helen said with a sigh. "I just want to see if maybe - "

"_… and now we go to Bob Jacobs for our weather report… Bob?_"

"Looks like they're done covering that story," Kauri said, getting up. "I think I'm gonna head home, guys."

"Be careful," Bob warned, getting up to see her to the door. "Syndrome has a bad habit of popping up when you least expect him…"

"I'll remember that," Kauri said, pulling her keys out of her purse. "I'll see you later, Bob."

"Bye, Kauri," Bob said, frowning worriedly. "Watch your back, okay?"

"I always do."

- - - - - - - - -

Kauri lived in a shady neighborhood in a very dilapidated apartment building. She shared an apartment with her boyfriend Eric, who was currently an unemployed alcoholic when he was not attempting to save the world. Kauri worked at the local university's library after having received a Master's Degree in Linguistics. She got paid a decent wage, but not enough to support both herself and Eric's drinking habit.

Her car matched the decrepit state of almost everything else in her life - a rusted, busted Geo Prism hatchback that government agencies had managed to make into a cool transformer. The inside of the car was much more high-tech, with various screens, maps, locators, buttons, etc., which made it the appropriate vehicle for a super. Kauri parked it in parking spot 78, one of the farthest from her apartment building's door. She was never comfortable with the parking garage - her mother, when Kauri had seen her as a child, always warned her about rapists and thieves hiding away.

Knowing that she was the newest target of a fairly dangerous supervillain made her especially nervous that night. She was hesitant to actually get out of her car, which was sad, considering her superpowers. Cautiously, she looked around the garage through her car windows. It was utterly deserted. She was safe.

Or so she thought.

She put her hand on the car door's handle, only to suddenly find herself completely frozen. "You know," a voice from the back seat said casually, "I really thought your car looked like it should have been shot and sent to the junkyard in the sky a long time ago, but, man, the inside makes up for the outside! I mean, you've got leather seats, and all of those nifty gadgets - I'm impressed. Really."

The beam of zero-point energy disappeared, except for a small beam that wrapped tightly around her wrists and her ankles. "What the hell_ is_ this?" she demanded, making an attempt to absorb it.

"It's not electricity, so I wouldn't suggest trying to take any of it in," Syndrome said from the back. The beams around her wrists, she noticed, had longer beams that disappeared into the back of the car. Abruptly, they shortened and dragged her into the backseat, beside her brand new nemesis.

"Didn't you ever read those emails that reminded you to check the backseat of your car for rapists before going anywhere?" Syndrome asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I delete forwards," Kauri snapped, disgruntled. She struggled to bring herself into some sort of dignified sitting position, and when she thought she had reached that point, she turned to look at Syndrome. "Besides, I figure any rapist has got himself a nasty little shock waiting if he tries to attack me."

Syndrome laughed. "I forgot how much you liked cheesy puns," he said.

It was Kauri's turn to raise her eyebrows. "We've met before now?" she asked.

"Aw, Bex, I'm hurt that you don't remember me," Syndrome said with a pout. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he added in a low growl, "And I'm more than a little pissed that you never told me you were a super."

Kauri, for the life of her, could not think who he could be. "I never told _anybody_ I was a super," she said, bewildered.

"I gathered that," he said darkly.

Kauri just gaped at him.

Syndrome turned away from her to stare out the window. "So tell me about your man friend," he said, sounding almost _jealous_. "When I dropped by the apartment, he seemed like something of a slob."

"You've been in my apartment?" Kauri gasped.

"Yeah, and it's pretty much a pit," he said, looking back at her again. "I always assumed you'd live in some nice apartment in downtown Metroville - but _no_, you picked this dive."

"It's not _my_ dive," Kauri mumbled. "It's Eric's."

"Yeah, about him," Syndrome said, leaning against the car door and crossing his arms over his chest. "He was so drunk he could be barely stand when I turned up. I didn't expect you to marry an alcoholic."

"We're not married," Kauri said, a lot more fiercely than she'd meant to. "We're just dating."

"I'd leave him, if I were you," he said, randomly zero-pointing a fly that was buzzing inside the car. "You deserve better."

"Thanks, but since when have _you_ been the judge of what's good enough for me?" Kauri demanded.

He shot her a dirty look. "I really _am_ hurt that it's taking you this long to figure this out," he said.

"Well, you could drop a few more hints," Kauri muttered.

"You shouldn't need hints," Syndrome informed her, tossing the zero-pointed fly against the windshield. It fell, dead, to the dashboard. He turned back to her and studied her closely. After a moment, he lifted her wrists and studied her hands, murmuring, "I missed you."

Kauri could only stare at him in confusion.

There was a look in his eyes that told her he truly was deeply wounded by the fact that she couldn't remember who he was. He set her hands back into her lap, but continued to stare at her. She frowned slightly in concentration. She tilted her head to the side and ran her eyes over his face - the chin, the mask, the flaming hair, the piercing aqua blue eyes, the few freckles that the mask couldn't hide crossing his nose and cheeks -

Her heart stopped.

"You know, Bex, I really had no idea how lit - " Syndrome started to say, but Kauri's stunned exclamation cut him off.

"Buddy!" she breathed.

He looked surprised, now that she actually remembered him. He recovered himself and smirked. "Bingo!" he said.

It was too bad that Kauri kissed with her eyes closed, because the startled expression on Buddy Pine's face when she fell against him and pressed her lips to his was one she would have relished. He was so stunned he released her zero-point energy binds. If he had simply been Syndrome, and not also a childhood friend, this would have been a very bad idea. As it was, Kauri just threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her.

It was lucky they'd been friends before.

- - - - - - - - -

Kauri Rosemarie Bexer's life had never been an easy one, and her neighbor and childhood best friend Buddy Pine had been there almost every step of the way, as she had been for him.

Kauri's parents lived basically normal lives. Alyssa Thomas and Jordan Bexer had met at a party in college, had fallen madly in love with each other, and gotten married. Alyssa was a gossip columnist in a local Metroville magazine; Jordan Bexer was an executive at Caterpillar.

Jordan was also Dragonflame.

Dragonflame was a very well known super, whose powers reflected the mythical dragons of medieval legends. He could breathe flames in long streams, and frequently grew claws and fangs when he fought. He was a force to be reckoned with - one of the most famous and one of the favorite Supers.

Alyssa Thomas Bexer had no idea her husband was a Super. She disapproved strongly of the men and women in spandex, and had told Jordan so every time they appeared on the news. Jordan was afraid to reveal the truth to her. It would have continued to be his secret…

Except that Kauri was born.

Until the age of three, Kauri appeared to be a perfectly normal little girl. She was an adorable child, with bright red curls like her mother's and stunningly green eyes that did not come from either parent. She was well behaved and friendly with all the neighboring children, particular the orange-red haired neighbor boy, Buddy Pine - the only child on the block who was considered more adorable than Kauri. With his wide, bright blue eyes and freckle face, all Buddy had to do was smile to get anything he wanted. The pair of them made a cute, cuddly duo, and everyone on the block loved seeing them play together.

One day, Alyssa and Jordan had been visiting Alex and Mary Pine, and Kauri and Buddy had been busily playing on the floor in the living room. Alex and Mary had left the room to look for a picture album of their latest vacation, and while they were gone, Kauri and Buddy had been curiously studying the electrical socket. That was when Kauri decided to stick her finger in the little holes.

The resounding electrical shock made her mother scream out loud. But Kauri pulled her finger back out of the socket without any apparent damage and looked back at her parents with a giggle. "That was bright!" she announced, to her parents' utter amazement.

"Oh my God," Alyssa had gasped. "Jordan… is she… is Kauri… she can't be… a Super? Can she? Jordan?"

The Bexers had left abruptly, so that when Mary and Alex returned, they found only their son playing on the floor.

Jordan had confessed that he was Dragonflame, and that his genes must have transferred to their small daughter. He told Alyssa that he was sorry he hadn't told her before, but that they still loved each other, and surely they could work it out?

It turned out they couldn't. Alyssa left the house a week later and filed for divorce. She allowed Jordan to have custody of their "strange" daughter, and only allowed visits from Kauri when she had to. Whenever Kauri was at her mother's house, she'd always felt like a monster - reviled for her special abilities. Fearing the same sort of rejection from her friends, she kept her powers a secret - even from Buddy.

Of course, Buddy was a great lover of supers, Mr. Incredible in particular. They would run around their backyards together, playing sidekicks to their favorite heroes, Dragonflame and Mr. Incredible. Kauri called herself Static; Buddy called himself Incrediboy. Buddy was so obsessed with becoming Incrediboy that he actually made the costume, and his own rocket boots. He even dyed his hair blonde, like Mr. Incredible's. This obsession continued until they were about ten years old. In that year fell the unfortunate rejection of Incrediboy, and the subsequent suing and removal of the Supers from the public eye. Buddy threw away all of his Mr. Incredible memorabilia and told Kauri that supers were worthless, and that he hoped they all disappeared forever and ever.

Kauri never quite got over that.

Buddy's hatred for supers increased throughout middle school, and in high school he began making elaborate plans for their defeat. Kauri had no other friends at the time, and she was also finding herself increasingly attracted to Buddy as high school wore on, and so she stayed with him, despite the difficulty of keeping her secret.

They started dating directly after Junior Prom, after a snotty, preppy, stereotypical cheerleader named Miriam Aster, who had been Buddy's date, abandoned him for Kauri's buff football player date. They met each other walking in the park and both began to bitch about their rejection and how much they hated Miriam and her stupid football players. Somehow all that bitching ended up in a serious make-out session. Neither of them ever quite remembered how that came about. The thing you remember about a serious make-out session is that it actually happened, and not why.

They dated through the rest of high school, and even into college, when they both started at Metroville University in the department of Science and Engineering, along with none other than their hated cheerleader enemy Miriam Aster. It swiftly turned out that Miriam was not half as bad as she seemed, and the three became inseparable.

Buddy told both girls of his plans to start a science corporation, and how he wanted both of them to help him. At first, Kauri had been excited by the prospect of this venture, but it quickly became obvious that Buddy and Miriam's goal was to defeat and kill supers. Miriam held a grudge against the supers because one of them had failed to rescue her younger brother from a fire. She and Buddy spat venomous comments about Superheroes all the time, and eventually it became too much for Kauri. Directly after graduation she announced that she had no plans to help them with their business, and left.

She didn't hear from either of them much after that. They couldn't understand why she had left them, and she couldn't understand how anyone could hold so strong a grudge. Buddy emailed her about three times a year to see how she was and to tell her that he missed her. Occasionally she emailed back, but her responses had always been brief and to the point. She'd almost hoped that he'd be able to see through the clipped lines and realize that she really, really missed him too.

He couldn't, and eventually, he gave up on her.

Kauri had gone back to college and gotten her Master's in Linguistics, and had been working for Metroville University's library ever since. She'd met Eric at a restaurant, and, when he'd been drunk once, he'd told her he was a super. At first, this had drawn her to him, and she had agreed with all his sentiments about how the world hated them. But it became rapidly more clear that he wasn't really worth her time - he was always drunk, and always blaming his problems on everyone else but him - especially Kauri, since she was typically within range of his fist.

Kauri Bexer, even as Static, had never needed Buddy Pine in her life more than she needed him now.

And suddenly, there he was.

- - - - - - - - -

Of course, the form in which he'd appeared couldn't have been less ideal. Dear God, he'd announced himself as her nemesis!

But, lying in the backseat of her car, it really didn't seem to matter much to either of them.

Buddy was the first to break the kiss. He grinned from above her. "You know what this reminds me of?"

"What?" Kauri asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Junior prom night."

Kauri giggled. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" she said.

Buddy moved to kiss her neck. "I missed you so much, Bex," he breathed. "I could have used your help with the company at least a thousand times… plus it gets lonely out there, in the middle of the ocean…"

"Didn't Miriam stick around?"

"She goes by Mirage now," Buddy said. "And yes, she did, for a while. She just left a few months ago, actually."

"Mirage?" Kauri questioned. "Sounds like a stripper name."

Buddy chuckled. "It does, doesn't it?" he agreed. "It's actually her super name."

Kauri's body jolted at this announcement, and Buddy pulled back from her in surprise. "What?" he demanded.

"Miriam Aster is a _super_?" she repeated, stunned. "And you never _told_ me?"

Syndrome's eyes narrowed. "Hey, look, sweetheart," he snapped. "You never told me you were a super, either."

"Do you _blame_ me?" Kauri cried, attempting to sit up. Syndrome backed off and leaned against the car door again. "You two were always talking about killing supers! And to think… she's a super herself! How could she -?"

"You heard about what Frozone did to her little brother," Syndrome pointed out.

"That same fire killed my half-sister, Haylie!" Kauri retorted. "And I live with a Super who's probably the biggest jerk in the known universe and _I_ haven't totally turned my back on Supers!"

Syndrome shrugged. "You were always a lot stronger than Miriam or me," he said.

Kauri laughed, a bitter, mirthless laugh. "Right," she said. "And look where that got me." Very much against her will, she started to cry.

Syndrome's expression softened considerably as Kauri tried to hide the fact that she was crying. "Bex… baby… come here…" He caught her around the waist and pulled her against him. Kauri started to sob into his shoulder.

"I can't even tell you," she choked out, "How awful everything's been. It doesn't even matter than I'm a super. It's like, you go out and save the world, woop-dee-doo, and then you take off the supersuit and the whole world crashes around you. It's like… I don't know… it's like I'm two different people, sometimes, and I hate it. I hate it, and I hate Eric, and I hate this stupid apartment, and I hate my life!"

Buddy lightly kissed her forehead. "Bex… why don't you just leave him?"

She gulped in air. "Because I can't," she said.

"Of course you can!" Buddy said indignantly. "Just tell him that you don't want to be with him anymore, and leave."

"You make it sound so easy," Kauri said harshly. "But it's not that simple. I've threatened to walk out before, and do you know what happens? He uses his powers on me, even when he's drunk. He made the floor swallow me once, like quicksand. I barely got out of that one. If I actually walk out the door, he'll kill me."

"Bex, he coul -"

"Buddy, _he'll kill me_."

She said this with such awful conviction and certainty that for a moment, Buddy was convinced she was right. Hesitantly, he said, "Go somewhere where he can't find you."

"Where's that?" Kauri sniffed. "He'll find me anywhere in Metroville."

"So leave Metroville."

"And go _where_?" Kauri demanded, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "Buddy, this is my home. I grew up here, and I don't _want_ to leave. Besides, it would take money to move, and I don't _have_ money."

"I'll lend you some," he offered.

She stared at him incredulously. "How much have you got?"

He waved a hand carelessly. "Oh, a couple hundred million, easily," he said.

She gaped at him. "_What!_"

He grinned. "The company's been very successful," he informed her with a smug smile. "We've got a lot of money left. We had some losses when the government locked my accounts, but I had my money in other places than American banks. I'm not stupid."

"I'm pretty sure you're a genius," Kauri said in an awed, adoring voice. "But I still wouldn't know where to go."

"You could come to my island," Buddy suggested hopefully.

She looked at him sharply. "And work for your company?"

"Yeah," he said, clearly warming to the subject. "I'll need somebody to take Mirage's place, and you'd be just the right person! It'd be just like old times -"

"Would we be killing supers?"

Buddy stopped and chewed his lower lip uncertainly. "Well, I think - I mean I guess -" He stopped, and then said firmly, "Yes."

Kauri pulled back from him, wiped the last of her tears away, and said, "Then I can't go. I'm sorry. Thanks for the offer, though."

Syndrome stared at her. "So you'd rather stay with this _asshole _then come and live on my island with me?" he said dubiously.

"If you're going to be killing Supers, yes," she said evenly. "I'm one of them."

"No, Bex, you're not," Syndrome snapped. "You're _better_ than those pompous, worthless -"

"Buddy," she said coldly. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about. I understand why you're angry at Mr. Incredible, but he's a good person, and he made a mistake. It happens even to superheroes. You just refuse to understand that."

Kauri grabbed the handle of the car door and opened it. She leapt outside, even as Buddy reached out to grab her and pull her back in. He aimed a beam of zero-point energy at her, but she leapt nimbly out of the way and ran towards the apartment building's door. She heard him leap out of the car and heard the sound of his rocket boots igniting.

A few seconds later, he landed in front of her. She barely managed to keep from running into him. She tried to walk around him, but he caught her arm and jerked her back. "Bex, don't do this to me," he pleaded. "I want to help you get away from all of this."

"Then figure out a better way to do it," Kauri suggested frigidly, trying to pull her arm free of his grip.

He didn't let go. "Is this what you want?" he said, motioning to the decrepit parking garage and the building attached to it. "Do you want to keep living this miserable half-life?"

Kauri swallowed her tears. "No," she said softly. "But I won't be responsible for the death of people like me." She managed to jerk her arm free, and she ran towards the door.

She heard Syndrome call after her, "Bex! BEX!" but she ignored him, throwing open the door, running inside and slamming it shut.

She collapsed on the stairwell leading up to her apartment and wept.


	4. Chapter 4

_She wants to go home, but nobody's home_

_That's where she lies, broken inside_

_With no place to go, no place to go_

_To dry her eyes, broken inside_

**_- _"Nobody's Home" by Avril Lavigne**

"Whatchahell yoo doin bitch?"

Kauri awoke at the sound of a very drunken voice, and a swift kick in the stomach. Her eyes flew open, and she made an attempt to sit up.

"I _seh_ watcha doin?"

"Stop kicking me, Eric!" Kauri snarled. "I… I was upset about something… I must have fallen asleep…"

Eric tumbled drunkenly beside her on the landing of the stairs. "Sonabish buss inna aparmen," he muttered, slurring his words so thoroughly that most people wouldn't have understood him. But Kauri had become so used to speaking to Eric when he was drunk that she could practically speak Drunken Slurring as its own language.

"Who broke into the apartment?" she demanded, looking alarmed. Then it dawned on her. "Syndrome?"

"Sonabish wih bushy reh hair…" Eric managed. "He buss inna aparmen… himee inna face…"

"Did he, now?" Kauri said, almost absently. "You deserved it."

"Dinnit," Eric slurred sullenly before slumping off into a drunken stupor.

Kauri sighed heavily and stood, catching Eric's arm and dragging him up the next flight of stairs. He didn't awaken.

After a lot of bumping around on the stairs, Kauri finally reached her apartment door. She dug for the key in her pocket, found it, and pulled it out, shoving it so violently into the doorknob that it could have pressed charges for rape. The door swung open with a loud creak and revealed a very dingy looking flat. The furniture was all old, probably originally nice but beaten into submission after many beer stains and a lot of collapsing and being thrown onto it. Kauri dragged Eric to a chair, lifted him by the armpits, and dropped him into it. He continued to snore loudly while Kauri went into the bathroom to shower.

The shower was dysfunctional and only gave hot water every other five minutes, so Kauri had forced herself to adjust to icy cold showers. Standing in the biting stream of water while scrubbing her hair, Kauri thought back on the events of the day - or was it the previous day? She had no idea how long she'd been sleeping; there were no windows on the stairwell to her apartment, and the apartment's windows were always covered by the drapes. It was as though Kauri was afraid to see the sunlight. Maybe she was.

Kauri glanced down at her stomach, which had several bright red marks running across it where Eric had kicked her. They would probably turn into ugly, blackish bruises eventually. Kauri was glad her costume hid her stomach from view; she was also glad for the visor, which hid her eyes from the public. She'd gotten a black eye three weeks ago and had had to go to a fight with a supervillain. There had been no sign of the black eye while she battled; but when she pulled the visor off, back at the Parr home, they had all noticed and demanded to know what had happened, and if she was okay.

Kauri scrubbed her face, hard, with a washcloth, as though this could wipe away the ugly bruises and scars that had mottled her face from various attacks. She began to cry, long and hard, into the washcloth, and prayed to God, or whatever entity had created the world, that Eric didn't wake and hear her. He always hit her when she cried. He told her it was a sign of weakness.

She remembered, suddenly, painfully, how only a little while ago, when she had burst into tears in the back seat of her car, Buddy had comforted her. _Dammit,_ she thought with an angry sniffle. _You turned him down! You refused to live with him! Why the hell did you do that, Bex? Why? You don't want to stay with Eric… you know Buddy'd take care of you… he's been doing it almost all his life, after all… damn you, Bex, damn you and your stupid honor and pride!_

Kauri threw the washcloth aside angrily and scrubbed her face raw with her own hands. She still felt as though all the grit and pain and hideous bruises could be seen across her face, but she knew they were all safely stored inside her own mind. She wished she knew some way to find some sort of metaphorical washcloth and scrub all the ugly inner scars away.

Superhero work did that… but that was only temporary relief. Once she took off the supersuit, she wasn't special anymore, she wasn't important; she wasn't worth anything to anyone… especially not to herself.

Kauri turned the shower off. She had no idea how long she'd been in there, but she was concerned about water bills. She had barely enough money to support herself and Eric as it was. She stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and marched into her bedroom.

She was just reaching into her dresser to get some clothes when a signaler attached to her wall went off. She paused long enough to stare at it and see that it was flashing red, before charging over to her phone and picking it up. "This is Static," she said in a low voice, praying she wouldn't wake Eric."

"Hey, Stat, it's Frozone," said the voice on the other line. "Your pal Syndrome's causing some problems downtown. Mr. Incredible's already on his way, but we thought you'd wanna take the jerk down yourself."

"Thanks, 'Zone," Kauri said with a grin. "I'll be there in a minute."

She hung up the phone and walked, taller and prouder, to the other side of the room, where her clothes lay in a heap. She pulled them off and found her supersuit beneath. She had it on within the space of two minutes. Leaping to her feet, she charged out the door and down the stairs to the parking lot.

She was no longer weak little Kauri Bexer. She was Static, and she was just about to show Syndrome exactly what he was dealing with.


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm the son of rage and love_

**_- _"Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day**

Syndrome hovered slightly above the rooftop of the apartment building (originally an abandoned warehouse) watching as three robots (smaller than the Omnidroid line, but of a similar design) attacked Metroville in three separate areas. The supervillain smirked slightly. That'd give the Supers some work to do this afternoon.

He was waiting for Bex. He knew she would appear, and he knew she would be looking for him. She wouldn't waste time on the robots if she could. To kill an animal, you had to cut off its head. Bex was the one who had taught him this philosophy; undoubtedly, it was still one she used as she fought evil under the guise of Static.

Syndrome reached over to a pot of flowers put there by the owners of the top floor apartment and plucked one. Static. It had been her super name as a girl. It had been the reason he had searched her background, and discovered just how cruelly she had betrayed him.

Or was it how cruelly he had betrayed her?

Syndrome crushed the flower in the fingers of his pure, snowy white glove. His rage showed only in the ice blue depths of his eyes, and in the slight reddening of his face. From a distance, no one would have known how angry and hurt he was at the moment, thinking of Bex and every rejection she had ever thrown at him.

Maybe he had deserved it. But he didn't think he deserved to be rejected again.

He dropped the crushed, bruised petals of the flower onto the ground and turned to stalk off. He was startled to find himself staring into a deep black visor. He stepped back slightly and took in the whole form. "Static," he said through clenched teeth.

Static bent and scooped up the flower petals. She studied them carefully, turning them over delicately with her fingers, as though terrified to damage them more. Syndrome was startled to see a tear slip from beneath the visor. "I feel like this flower, sometimes," she said softly. Syndrome had a feeling she wasn't talking to him, really, or to anyone.

"Bex," he said in a low voice, reaching out to touch her cheek. Maybe, just maybe, she trusted him…?

But she stepped back from him and pushed his hand away. "Not now," she said coldly.

Syndrome's eyes hardened. "Of course," he snarled. "You're the hero now, aren't you, little Bex? You can call the cops on me, beat me in front of the public, get my ass arrested, and you can just forget that I'm the only one who ever really cared for you."

She might have been looking at him; with the visor over her eyes, Syndrome couldn't tell. "We aren't the same people. Not right now."

Syndrome's eyebrows shot up. "No?" he questioned.

She smiled slightly. "You yourself told Mr. Incredible your name wasn't Buddy," she pointed out. "While you're in that suit, you're not Buddy Pine. You're Syndrome, and Syndrome has no attachments to Kauri Bexer, or Static, for that matter. And Kauri Bexer doesn't exist right now, either. There is only Static, and Static sees Syndrome for the menace he is."

It was creepy how icy her voice became as she said that, how detached, how calm, as though that was the way things should have been. Syndrome didn't like it. It might have been true, but even he allowed some of Buddy Pine to leak into his Super life. "You can't ever be wholly separate from the other half," he replied.

"Can't you?" The simple words told Syndrome that Bex _was_, in fact, dead while the body she typically occupied wore that suit. Static had taken her place. It was disturbing - like someone with split-personality disorder.

"You know, sweetheart, it's not healthy to have two personas like this," Syndrome informed her, leaning casually against the wall.

She shrugged. "Nobody knows but you and I," she said evenly. "But we're wasting time." She pointed to the robots. "Shut them off."

Syndrome raised an eyebrow. "And if I don't want to?"

"I don't _care_ what you want or don't want."

"So I gathered." Syndrome stretched and yawned slightly. "Well, unfortunately, I'm not really in the mood to shut them down - they've barely been in operation for an hour, after all. I'd like to keep them going, thanks very much."

Static raised her gloved hands. Electricity sparkled brightly around her fingertips. "Would you like to keep your life?" she said threateningly.

Syndrome laughed, a cold, wicked laugh. "Now you're threatening to kill me," he said bitterly, shaking his head. "Dear God. Who woulda thunk it? Going from high school sweethearts to mortal enemies. Not the typical story that makes the news for warm fuzzies."

"The only time you'll be making the news is when I've put you behind bars," Static hissed, and a burst of lightning shot from her hands in his direction.

He flicked a finger casually, and a blue shield leapt up and surrounded him. "One of my more ingenious ideas," he said in a bored tone. "Got the idea from Mr. Incredible's daughter."

Static attempted to fire more lightning in his direction. He blocked it again, and then zero-pointed her. "You know, really," he said, dropping her to the ground, "You shouldn't be this easy, Bex. People will talk."

This comment obviously enraged her. She bounded to her feet and leapt at him. She knocked him over the edge of the building, but she flipped off along with him.

Syndrome was vaguely aware of the wind in his ears as he and his nemesis plummeted downwards. He reached out and zero-pointed her, and then ignited his rocket boots. It took a moment, but he rapidly stabilized. Hanging in midair, he glanced at Static, who was still frozen in her original falling position, her hair still swinging upwards and her arms reaching desperately towards the now-distant roof of the apartment. "All I would have to do," he said softly, "Is let go, and you would be dead."

He turned and dove towards the ground, with Static still caught in the beam. When he had safely landed, he disengaged the beam and allowed her to fall to the ground, much more lightly than she would have had she free-fallen all the way from the roof.

She laid there a moment, her brilliant red hair hanging in her face and her whole body trembling. She rose shakily to her feet and then slowly removed the visor hiding her eyes. "You saved me," she said disbelievingly.

She was Bex again. Static had disappeared without a trace.

Syndrome shrugged slightly and approached her carefully. "You didn't expect me to let you fall and die, did you?" he questioned.

"I don't know," she murmured. "It's just… you're just so… you hate us…"

"Not you, Bex. Never you."

He reached out and tilted her chin upwards. She stared back at him. There was such confusion in her eyes… she didn't know what to think… she seemed almost lost…

He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers. She responded, but only slightly. He made to deepen the kiss, but the sound of a police alarm shattered the moment. He jerked backwards and glanced over his shoulder. Bex suddenly seemed to remember what she was supposed to be doing and stepped backwards from him, her hand rising as she put the visor back over her eyes.

Syndrome didn't waste time. Bex would let him run. Static would hand him over without any compunction whatsoever.

There was the brief sound of rocket boots igniting, and then Syndrome shot into the sky like a dark streak of lightning. Static could not follow him. Instead, she stood and watched him disappear.


	6. Chapter 6

_You taught me how to live in the streets of shame_

**_- _"The Death of Saint Jimmy" by Green Day**

When Mr. Incredible and the police arrived at the scene, Syndrome was disappearing rapidly into the air. "Got away again?" he asked, rather pointlessly, as he jogged over to where Static was standing.

"He saved me," she mumbled, her eyebrows knitted in so deeply they were completely hidden by her visor. "Why did he? He had nothing to lose. Nobody ever tried to save _me_."

Mr. Incredible stared curiously at his fellow Super. "What are you talking about?" he asked quietly.

Static ignored him. "It doesn't make sense," she said.

"Especially not since you won't explain," Mr. Incredible snapped testily.

Static continued to stare upwards. He had the bad feeling that she was completely lost in another world.

"Stat, come on," he said loudly, grabbing her arm. She suddenly seemed to jerk out of her reverie as she looked at him. "There are still the robots to deal with! He's leaving them behind!"

Static frowned. "It'd be just like him to leave us a lot of trouble," she muttered angrily, and she started at a run towards the downtown area.

"You could ride with us!" one policeman called uselessly after her, but she was already turning a corner. He shrugged and looked back at Mr. Incredible. "Are all Super heroines like that?" he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

Mr. Incredible shrugged somewhat helplessly and then took off after her.

- - - - - - - - -

_"And topping our headlines today is the newest attack on Metroville by the villain 'Syndrome', the nemesis of the famed 'Static'. He sent in three new robots in his Omnidroid line to distract the other Supers while he battled Static alone. There was damage to an apartment building in the western area of the city, where the battle apparently took place. There were no witnesses to the event, but it would seem that Syndrome saved himself from certain death by using his rocket boots. How Static survived the fall is uncertain. Experts guess that she must have thrown something at him from ground level that caused him to start to fall. Policemen arrived at the scene shortly after the fierce fight had ended, but they were too late. The wondrous Super 'Mr. Incredible' witnessed the departure of Syndrome._

_'He was flying off as soon as we got there. There was nothing we could do to stop him at that point,' said Mr. Incredible._

_"Static herself was not available for comment on the battle. Reporters attempted to approach her when she had finished dealing with the Omnidroids themselves, but she refused to say anything relating to the events of the day. Other Supers aided Static in her fight against Syndrome's machines. Included in the battle were Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, Invisigirl, The Dash, DemonChild, and Frozone._

_"Their battle with the Omnidroids lasted over four hours. Metroville sustained serious damage during the fight, but the Supers finally ridded the city of the machines at five o' clock this evening. There were 12 dead, 39 wounded. Counts are still coming in. There will be further news bulletins when we receive the latest count."_

"I can't believe you," Mirage said icily to Syndrome.

Syndrome turned off the large television screen with a flick of his wrist and swiveled his chair around to face his previous second-in-command, whom he was currently holding on the island until further notice. "No?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Just to get revenge on an ex-girlfriend, you would harm so many people?" she demanded angrily.

Syndrome shrugged slightly and glanced at the picture of Bex now sitting on his desk. "Just making a statement," he said.

"A fairly _demented_ statement!" Mirage exclaimed. "When are you going to stop? You can't keep killing Supers, Syndrome!"

"I don't intend to."

Mirage's eyebrows shot up at this. "Oh really?" she said quizzically. "So what's the next step in your plan?"

"I'm going back into Metroville to see Bex again."

"So you can kill her."

"No," Syndrome said flatly. "I don't want to kill her. I need to make an appearance once in a while, so it looks like the great Static is doing something in the name of the public and I'm still a huge menace."

"Why?" Mirage asked, genuinely curious now.

He shrugged slightly. "The more I see Bex, the more chances I have to rebuild some sort of relationship with her, whatever that is," he said, getting up and walking over to his desk. He lifted her picture from the surface and stared at it. "We can keep meeting under the guise of a fight, but without hurting anyone else. It's perfect."

"Except that you can't ever go public with your relationship," Mirage pointed out. "And do you really expect her to forgive you for killing off so many of her fellow Supers?"

Syndrome turned and gave Mirage a piercing stare. "Do you expect her to ever forgive _you_?"

"Me?" Mirage repeated. "But I didn't - " She stopped. _Oh, yes you did. You could have stopped him a hundred times, and you didn't. You're as much to blame as he is, and Bex will know it._

Mirage crossed her arms over her chest and said, "I don't suppose she would, would she?"

Syndrome shrugged again and turned away once more. "We're going to find out," he said softly, setting the picture down. "I _need_ her to forgive me. I need _somebody_ to."

Mirage's eyebrows shot up. "Are _you_ feeling _remorse_ for what you did?" she questioned.

Syndrome's hands balled into fists. "No!" he snapped. "I did the right thing! I showed those arrogant bastards that they weren't the only people who could be heroes! I didn't -!" He stopped, staring blankly at the wall, and then hung his head. He lifted his hand to his eyes and ran it across them. "I don't know, Mirage," he said dejectedly. "Did I do the right thing?"

"No," Mirage said bluntly. "No, you didn't. What you did was horribly wrong. We thought we were the right ones. We thought we had a purpose. And we were both wrong. You're right to want forgiveness."

"But the Supers _hated_ us!" Syndrome shouted angrily. "They destroyed our lives! They -"

"Are only human," Mirage said quietly. "I see that now. And, frankly, what with Bex being a Super, I'm surprised you don't see it yet either. Bex isn't invulnerable. She never has been, and never will be. You should know this better than anyone. She's not any different than any of the other Supers. They all have their own flaws, fears, and weaknesses. They all need someone to save them once in awhile, too."

This was obviously a major revelation to Syndrome, and it was one he didn't like. Supers had always been like gods to him - invulnerable, perfect, undefeatable. Mirage knew that he had always thought that if he could just be like them, all his problems would be solved, and he would never be weak again. The fact that this wasn't true, and that he had to face that now, was something he did not want to deal with.

He had known it before, of course. He had known it all along, and so had Mirage. But she had accepted it much more readily than Syndrome had. He was never ready, never willing, to face the fact that his idols were just as fallible as he himself was. Mirage had just forced him to look the fact full in the face. He still wasn't ready for it, but, Mirage reflected, he probably never would have been.

Syndrome was still gaping at her disbelievingly, looking confused and almost helpless. "But - but -" he stuttered uselessly.

Mirage waited for him to say something more coherent. Instead, he looked away from her and dropped down into a chair. "Then I'm as bad as all the dictators in history," he said tonelessly. "I've been killing off innocents because of a worthless bias, like Hitler."

"Well, not quite on that scale, but - " Mirage interrupted uncertainly.

"But it amounts to about the same thing," he finished. "She'll hate me forever."

Mirage chewed her lip. "It certainly seems the most likely possibility," she said softly. She couldn't lie to him; Bex would probably never forgive him for all the things he had done. Things would be worse if he wasn't forewarned.

Syndrome continued to stare blankly at the wall. "I never wanted things to be like this," he whispered.

"I know," Mirage murmured.

"All I wanted was to be a hero," he said. "Just like Mr. Incredible. Just like all of them. But they thought I wasn't good enough. They thought I wasn't worth their time. And I thought - I thought I was doing something right, getting rid of them. I thought if they were gone, no one would have to be pushed aside, like me. Everyone who wanted to could be a Super, and no one - _no one_ - would have to suffer like I did."

Mirage looked away. "Things get twisted around as time goes on," she said quietly. "The world becomes too complex, and our view gets darker and our motives less clear. We keep pushing towards some goal assuming it's for the greater good, but really, we've forgotten why we're still doing it."

Syndrome laughed mirthlessly. "No wonder this world sucks so bad," he said.

Mirage couldn't bring herself to smile even a little. It wasn't fair that the little boy that Buddy Pine was had become Syndrome, this cruel, cold, bitter supervillain who hated the world because of all the evil it contained. "There are still good things here," she said, somewhat pointlessly. She didn't think he would believe her.

She was surprised when she saw his eyes move to the picture on his desk once again. "Yes," he said, contemplating Bex's face. "Yes, there are. But even those things tend to get ruined."

"Not necessarily," Mirage protested. "Bex - "

" - Is living in the slums with an alcoholic Super who abuses her and who she won't leave because she's terrified he'll kill her if she does," Syndrome spat, and now the bitterness, if it had not been clear before, came bursting to the surface. "What the hell happened to us, Mirage? Bex has turned into some kind of scary schizophrenic - one second she's Static, the next second she's poor, scared, abused Kauri - you've become this sidekick who's turned traitor on both sides - and I've become some sort of psycho serial killer!" He buried his face in his hands and moaned, "I hate my life. I hate, hate, hate my life."

Mirage laid a hand hesitantly on his shoulder. He made no attempt to remove it, but he didn't seem to welcome it, either. "The world works in strange ways, Buddy," she said, taking a huge risk by calling him by his real name. "Someday, maybe, things will be different."

"Well, I wish that day would hurry up," Syndrome snapped angrily. "Because right now, my world is basically falling apart."

With that, he got up and stormed out of the room, leaving Mirage alone to contemplate.


	7. Chapter 7

_Just see how virtue repays you… you turn and someone betrays you…_

**- "The Riddle" from _The Scarlet Pimpernel_**

Bex returned home utterly exhausted and unnaturally depressed. The way Bex's life went, of course, she was almost always depressed - but today it was so much worse, and she couldn't quite explain why.

As she prepared to depart her car she glanced over her shoulder, just to check and see if maybe Syndrome had decided to appear again. He hadn't. The backseat was completely empty. For some reason this upset her a great deal more, and Bex swallowed the lump forming in her throat and angrily threw open the car door. "Bastard," she muttered to herself as she locked the car door and then walked towards her apartment building.

Her day had been extremely busy. This didn't particularly surprise her - hero work was always demanding. Fortunately, it was a Super who ran the library at Metroville University, where Bex worked on the side, and they would forgive her for not appearing at work that day. Eric, on the other hand, would not be nearly so magnanimous.

Bex stopped on the stairs and swallowed a sudden swell of fear painfully. Eric was seldom in a good mood, and he would feel worse if he knew he had missed an opportunity to play the all-important hero. Bex wasn't sure she was ready to tell him about her day. She prayed to God or whatever entity controlled the Universe that he was still passed out in a useless lump on the couch and then walked into the apartment building and up the stairs.

She unlocked the door with relatively little noise and slipped inside almost like a shadow. No sign of Eric anywhere. _Damn._ He was either awake and wandering around the apartment, or asleep in his room, or out buying more beer. Bex silently hoped that it was not the latter option; they needed whatever money they had left, and spending it on beer was about the last thing she wanted.

Bex walked almost silently through the house. Most people wouldn't have had any idea that she was there. Of course, Eric was not most people.

"Where the hell have _you_ been, bitch?"

Bex turned slowly to face her roommate. "Hi, Eric," she whispered fearfully.

"Out fighting crime without me again?" he snarled. "Being the little hero, getting all the limelight, without me again? Is that it? _Is_ _it?_"

"No," Bex mumbled, hanging her head. "You were sleeping… I thought you'd want to sleep longer… you know you don't fight well when you're - "

"Oh, so that's it, is it? I don't _fight_ well enough for you and the other Supers' taste?" Eric screamed.

Bex shook her head frantically. "No!" she gasped. "No, it's just that I didn't want to wake you - I'm sorry - I made a mistake - I won't do it again -!"

"Like hell you won't!" Eric growled, and then he punched her, hard, in the mouth.

Kauri tasted blood. She clutched at her bleeding lip and spit some of the blood onto the floor. "Eric, _please_!" she said desperately. "I'm really sorry - it's not _like_ that - I just -"

He hit her again, a neat punch in the eye. She tumbled backwards onto the floor. Hurriedly, she leapt to her feet and backed away, as far away as she could, towards the bedroom door. _Just get inside, lock the door and get inside, everything will be okay if you just lock the door and hide…_

"You worthless little whore," Eric spat angrily, throwing another punch. Kauri ducked. "Don't think I haven't heard about you and your new nemesis. All over the news tonight. And just because you avoided an interview doesn't mean anything. You still want all the fucking attention, don't you, Bex? Isn't that what you want? You just want to take it all away from me!"

"That's not true!" Kauri whimpered. "Eric, _please_ don't hurt me, I didn't mean -"

"Shut the fuck up!" Eric howled, and suddenly, Kauri was picked up by a horrible, spinning wind, like a miniature tornado. She was flung past Eric, down the hallway, and back into the living room. She slammed into a wall and the fell to the floor, the rapid wind disappearing. She lifted her head and made an attempt to stand, but Eric kicked her down. Flames appeared in his hands. "You should know better than to fuck with me," he snarled hatefully. He turned the palms of his hands towards her and prepared to shoot flames at her.

"Eric, _no!_" Kauri screamed, but the flames came shooting towards her. She frantically held up her hands in front of her face, knowing it wouldn't do any good, but the searing, painful heat never came. She looked up cautiously and gave a stunned exclamation. Eric was still standing in front of her, but he was frozen in a beam of bluish energy.

"And _you_," a voice said icily from behind him. "Should never, _ever_ fuck with Bex like that. You never know what friends might come to her rescue."

"Buddy!" Kauri stood shakily to her feet.

Syndrome almost casually threw Eric through a wall. "Bex…" he said softly, staring at her bleeding and bruised face.

"Oh my God! Bex!" Someone with platinum blonde hair ran out from behind Syndrome and threw her arms around Kauri's neck.

"Miriam?" Kauri said in disbelief.

Mirage stepped back from her and studied her damaged face. "Bex, how can you let this asshole do this to you?" she demanded, angrily brushing tears from her face. "It isn't fair."

"I'm coming to find that a whole lot of life isn't fair," Kauri said bitterly. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Kidnapping you," Syndrome replied offhandedly. "And in the nick of time, I see."

"Wait a second," Kauri said, narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean, _kidnapping?_"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Syndrome replied. Kauri started to back away, but Syndrome closed the distance between them with a few swift steps and caught her arms so that she couldn't escape. "I'm taking you away to my lovely little island paradise for awhile, so that we can have a little talk."

"About what?" Kauri asked nervously.

"A lot of things," Syndrome said with a shrug. He gave her a piercing glance. "I swear to you that it won't be nearly as painful as staying here seems to be."

Kauri started to chew on her lip, a sure sign that she was almost ready to burst into tears. Syndrome's whole manner seemed to soften. "Ah, Bex… don't…"

But she was already sniffling. Buddy pulled her against him and gently embraced her as she started to sob. "Hey, Mir, get me some Kleenex, will you?" he said quietly.

Mirage rushed to obey.

Syndrome stood uncertainly in the center of Kauri's dilapidated living room, trying to figure out exactly what to do. He had never been very good at this sort of thing - comforting somebody. He'd always tried to make Bex happier, but obviously he'd failed at that, too. Just like he'd failed at everything else in life.

He pushed this thought from his mind and gently lifted Bex off the floor, carrying her over to one of the collapsing couches. Bex hiccupped a bit and lifted her head from his shoulder, wiping her bleeding nose on the back of her hand. "Dammit," she said with a sniff. "I'm bleeding."

"And you were expecting…?" Syndrome questioned, raising an eyebrow. "That's what happens when you let your boyfriend beat you."

"Shut up," Kauri snapped angrily. "You have no right to give any commentary."

"Well, I don't exactly have a boyfriend," Syndrome said, rolling his eyes. "So I guess I can't say that he beats me."

Kauri giggled despite herself at this, but stopped as a fresh spurt of blood came from her nose. "Dammit," she muttered again.

"Mirage, you might wanna hurry with that Kleenex," Syndrome called.

"I can't find any!" Mirage yelled back, frustrated. "This place is such a pit, Bex! How the hell do you live here?"

"By trying to avoid coming back for as long as I can," Bex muttered.

Syndrome bit his lip. "Your life is really shitty, you know that?" he said.

"Thanks for the news flash, Buddy. Yes, I knew."

Buddy sighed angrily and looked around for something Bex could use to wipe her nose. "Here," he said, tossing her an old pillowcase. "That looks like it's seen better days. I'm sure it won't mind being used as a snot rag."

"It's been used for worse things," Bex said, gently pressing the rag to her nose. "Ouch!"

"Did he hit you in the nose?" Buddy asked worriedly.

"Don't think so," Bex mumbled. "It must have been when I hit the wall or something…"

"He threw you against the _wall?_" Buddy said in disbelief.

"Yup. He does it all the time."

"Son of a bitch!" Syndrome swore. "I swear I'll kill that worthless bastard."

"Don't you dare," Kauri snapped. "I may not like the guy, but you're not going to kill him."

"Well, I'll at least get his ass hauled to jail," Syndrome retorted hotly.

"Yeah, that'll be great," Kauri replied sarcastically. "'Hi, I'm Syndrome, that evil supervillain you see on TV wanted ads all the time, and I'm here to report domestic violence, oh, yes, and while I'm here, why don't you just clap those handcuffs on me and shove me in a top-security jail cell?'"

"Jeez," Buddy muttered. "You save somebody from getting their face burned off and do they show you any gratitude? Of course not!"

"You're being insensitive," Mirage said, re-entering the room with a roll of toilet paper. "Sorry, Bex. This is the best I could do."

Bex tossed the now-bloody pillowcase onto the floor. "It's an improvement. That thing probably hasn't been washed in ages."

Mirage wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's so gross," she said. "What is it? Just a random rag?"

"It's a pillowcase," Kauri said, blowing her nose loudly into a wad of toilet paper.

"Well, since you're about as fixed up as we can get you here," Syndrome said, standing up and stretching slightly, "I think it's time we bust out of this puke hole."

"Thanks, Buddy," Kauri said, rolling her eyes, but she stood and gently leaned against Syndrome. He gladly took the invitation and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, to help support her.

"You'll be ok, won't you?" he asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "I've survived worse than this."

"So you've told me," Syndrome said with a heavy sigh. "All right then. Shall we?"

"Let's blow this Popsicle stand," Kauri said with a grin. Syndrome smiled slightly back at her, and then helped her limp towards the door.


	8. Chapter 8

_The rest is mine, I guess, the beauty and the mess, to hide…_

**- "Beauty and the Mess," by Nickel Creek**

Helen Parr came to the apartment complex alone. She rapidly reflected that this had probably been a bad idea almost as soon as she stepped out of her car. The entire building looked as though it were about to fall apart, and there were many shady-looking men standing around outside the doors, eyeing her and her vehicle speculatively. If she had not been a Super, Helen would have gotten in her car and driven away that very instant. However, she was confident her amazing superpowers would protect her, should any situation arise.

She approached one of the men standing outside with surprising courage - at least, surprising to the thugs. "I'm looking for Kauri Bexer," she said. "Apartment 13C?"

The man she'd spoken to jerked his thumb towards the building. "Door's open," he said, smiling unpleasantly. "Don't know how well Bex'll be, though. Sounded like she and her boyfriend went at it again."

Helen raised an eyebrow. "Eric?" she questioned.

"Yeah," the man said, tossing down a cigarette tucked behind his ear and grinding it into the ground with his heel. "He was pretty pissed at her about something. Couldn't say what. Sounded like he threw her against the wall or something. 'Course, that's not really an uncommon occurrence, if you know what I'm sayin'."

Helen looked horrified. "He threw her against the wall?" she repeated in disbelief.

The man shrugged slightly. "He does it all the time," he said. He grinned slightly. "You not used to the rough life, sweetheart?"

"I can handle thugs like you," Helen spat, and before the man could make any attempt to reply, she turned and walked up the stairs.

The door to the apartment was indeed open, and Helen entered without any hindrance. She rushed up the stairs, worried about what she would find when she reached Kauri's apartment. She'd never been here before, but she'd been worried about Kauri. Bob had told Helen that she'd been acting strange - sort of lost and confused, muttering something about how "he" saved her life. Helen needed to make sure that Kauri was all right, and that if she needed to talk to someone, she knew that Helen was there to listen.

She reached the third floor of the building in almost no time at all. It looked, somehow, more drab and rundown than the other floors. There was an aura of depression and angst about the place that the other floors somehow did not have. Maybe it was only Helen's imagination, or maybe it was that the tenants who lived here were worse off than any of the others. Helen was not sure she wanted to find out.

The door at the end of the hall was a chipped and peeling rust-red. Helen shuddered slightly as the thought of blood oozing its way through the wood came to her. She shook off her fear and glanced at the number of the door. "Of course," she muttered. "The one with the door that looks like it has blood all over it _has_ to be 13C. I swear, this is going to turn into some sort of horror flick in a few seconds." Sighing deeply, she approached the ominous-looking doorway and raised her fist to knock. "Hello?" she called. "Kauri? Anybody home?"

The door swung open slowly and didn't make a sound. Eric was standing behind it, blood drying on his mouth and running from his nose, his face swollen in various parts, and limping. "Helen," he groaned, "He's… he's taken her… I tried to fight him… I really tried to fight him… but he was too powerful! He had some chick with him… they took her away… I couldn't stop them… Helen, you've gotta help me find her…"

"Wait a minute," Helen said, shaking her head in confusion. She entered the apartment and helped support Eric to the couch. There was also blood drying on it. "What's _this_ from?" she demanded.

"Bex," Eric moaned, leaning back against the couch cushions. "Her nemesis… what's his name?"

Helen's heart stopped dead. "Syndrome?" she whispered.

"Yeah, him," Eric said, waving a hand. "Son of a bitch with bushy red hair. He came in and said he wanted to see her. I told him she wasn't home, cuz she was sleeping, see… long day of hero work, you know… but he didn't believe me, and he chucked me through the damn wall. I thought I heard Bex screaming later, but I was hurt too bad to do anything… Helen, we've gotta go find her!"

"Yes," Helen said, staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. "My God, yes, we do. We've got to go to Nomanisan… he must have reestablished himself there… we've got to rescue her… come on, we're going to my house. That way we can get Bob to come with us. He'll want another shot at Syndrome anyway… here, let me help you walk…"

Eric threw his arm around Helen's neck and silently thanked whatever entity happened to be watching him at that moment. He silently prayed that whatever else happened, Helen and Bob didn't start asking any uncomfortable questions, and that Bex didn't blab all over that _he_ was the one who'd beaten her, that Syndrome had saved the little whore, that Eric had threatened to kill her. But Bex had her pride. She wouldn't tell. Oh, no, she wouldn't tell a soul.

And the lie would live on.


	9. Chapter 9

_I'm Supergirl, and I'm here to save the world_

_But I wanna know, who's gonna save me?_

**-"Supergirl"**

The jet ride to Nomanisan took about two hours. In the dark, it was not a particularly scenic trip, but Kauri stared blankly out the jet's window nonetheless, eyes attempting to penetrate the deep darkness. Mirage watched her concernedly while Syndrome slept in the seat between them, his head resting on Kauri's shoulder. She'd wrapped one of her arms around him and was playing absently with his hair, but her mind was obviously elsewhere.

Mirage was almost afraid to interrupt Bex's thoughts. She could guess the turmoil that was going on in Bex right now, and she wasn't sure Kauri would want to discuss it. But, after almost forty-five minutes of silence, Mirage decided to speak to her.

"Bex?" she said softly.

Bex jolted slightly and turned to look at Mirage with wide green eyes. "Yeah?" she said as Syndrome shifted against her shoulder, disturbed by her movement. She glanced down at him, and then leaned her head against his, still watching Mirage.

Mirage watched them a moment longer before voicing her thoughts. "Why haven't you given up on them already?" she asked. "The Supers, I mean. They've failed you as badly as they failed us."

Kauri sighed and sat up again. Syndrome mumbled something in his sleep. "I can't give up on them," she said. "I just… can't. My father was Dragonflame, you know."

"Really?" Mirage said, raising her eyebrows. "I guess that would explain why Buddy always told me Dragonflame was your favorite."

Kauri smiled. "I always pretended I was his sidekick," she said with a distant look. "I'd always tell him that I'd be willing to go out and help him when he fought Supervillains, but he wouldn't let me. He told me it was too dangerous. He told me - " She stopped and closed her eyes tightly. Then, she continued, "He told me that he didn't want me to suffer like he did, because Superhero work did things to you. It made you different from everyone else. It made you revered and hated at the same time. You could have anything you wanted, and yet, you couldn't. He told me, when I was older, that it was like living in a gigantic oxymoron, and that I shouldn't let that happen to me."

She turned to stare out the window again. "My mother left us because we were Supers. She thought we were freaks of nature. My half-brothers are _still_ convinced I'm some freakish, mentally ill psychopath."

"I'm… I'm sorry," Mirage said lamely, not really certain what else she could say. "But that doesn't explain why you can't give up on them."

Kauri shrugged slightly again. "I just… have to believe that things don't have to be that way," she said. "Otherwise, what's the point of it? Of any of it? Saving _other_ people? I can't live to save others all the time. What about me? When's someone going to save me?"

Mirage glanced down at Syndrome's sleeping form, cuddled so cozily in Kauri's arms. "I think someone _is_ trying to save you," she said quietly.

Kauri looked down and studied Syndrome's face as he slept, unaware of the world around him. "I suppose he is," she said. "But… there's still his plot to destroy all the Supers."

Mirage shook her head. "He's given up on that," she said simply. "He just… wants to make everything all right for _you_."

Kauri looked astonished. "But he told me - "

"His plans have changed," Mirage said. Hesitantly, she added, "He… he's just starting realize exactly what he's done. He's begun to figure out that he took things too far, and… well… I think it's tearing him apart, Bex. He's looking for forgiveness."

"From?"

"You, of course," Mirage said, raising her eyebrows. "Who else? You're the person he cares about the most. When you left after college, I really thought he might kill himself. He couldn't understand what he'd done to hurt you, and he wanted to fix it so badly… but you'd barely speak to us. He retreated completely into himself… made himself an island…"

"Hence the name of his actual island," Kauri said.

Mirage smiled slightly. "Yes," she said. "I always thought that was an interesting thing. But he never commented on it."

They sat in silence for a while, thinking. Then, Kauri asked, "Why has he brought me here?"

"To talk to you, I expect," Mirage said with a shrug. "To get some time alone with you. He hasn't spoken with you - I mean, _really_ spoken with you - for years. He misses you a lot. I miss you too."

Kauri smiled.

Mirage returned the smile. "I know it won't mean much to you, considering what the island operation was, but… there were so many times when we'd be experiencing glitches and we'd stomp around the control rooms saying, 'Where the hell is Kauri Bexer when you need her?' Even some of the guards started saying that when things went wrong, and they don't even know who you are."

Kauri laughed, which made Syndrome shift a little irritably in his sleep and grumble something. She looked down at him and smiled affectionately. "I missed you guys too," she said. "He'd send me about three emails a year, you know, for a while… and I'd just look forward to getting them so much… I had files and files of these giant emails pouring my heart out to both of you. Of course, I never sent those. I didn't think you'd really care, or want to know. But… well. Life is a lot harder when you have no friends."

"I can't believe that you don't have friends," Mirage said. "You were so… well… _friendly_ in college."

"Things change when you get a boyfriend who beats you and you don't want anyone to know," Kauri said harshly.

Mirage frowned. "Bex, leave him already!" she said anxiously. "He's destroying you!"

"He'll kill me if I leave," Kauri said tersely.

"He'll kill you if you don't," Mirage said flatly. "Someday, he'll take things too far, and then what?"

"Then I'll be dead," Kauri said simply.

"It shouldn't be that black and white!" Mirage cried angrily. "Kauri, all you'd have to do is ask, and you could stay on Nomanisan. You'd be well-protected - he'd never be able to touch you - Syndrome would be there to - "

"Shhh!" Kauri hissed as Syndrome shifted again, grumbling this time somewhat coherently. "You'll wake him."

"I don't care!" Mirage snapped. "At least then I'll have some back-up on this!"

Syndrome's eyes fluttered open. "Wha… what's going on? Why're we yelling?" He sat up, stretched, and yawned.

"We were just discussing how Kauri should be staying on the island with us instead of living with the asshole in Metroville," Mirage said coldly.

Kauri frowned, crossed her arms over her chest, and turned to look out the window. "He'll find me anyway," she muttered.

Syndrome raked a hand through his now-messy hair, also frowning. "So what?" he said. "He'd be slapped in a prison cell before he could say 'Bitch' to you."

"I doubt that," Kauri said bitterly. "He's very powerful."

"Good for him," Syndrome said, rolling his eyes. "But _I_ have zero-point energy."

"Ever the braggart," Kauri muttered, but she smiled slightly.

"It's true," Syndrome said with a pout. "It's not like he can do anything while frozen, is it?"

"No," Kauri conceded.

"There you are, then," Syndrome said with a smirk. "You'd be perfectly safe here."

"I suppose…" Kauri said grudgingly.

Syndrome was beginning to smile hopefully. "So… you'll stay, right?"

"I'll think about it," Kauri said shortly.

Syndrome glanced at Mirage. Mirage rolled her eyes. "I suppose we could always just trap her in a cell," she suggested jokingly to him. "That way _she_ can't get out, either."

Syndrome pretended to ponder this. "That's true," he said. "And then, of course, when she's trapped in my nifty little electro-cells, there's always the fun S&M possibilities that come with the shocking equipment…"

Kauri turned around and slapped him on the arm. "You jerk!" she said, but she was smiling, too. "You should know by now I'm not into bondage-domination games."

Syndrome pouted playfully. "Aw, but Bex, they're so _fun_!" he said.

All three of them burst out laughing. "So tell me something, Syndrome," Kauri said, raising an eyebrow. "How do you _know_ that bondage-domination games are fun?"

"How do _you_ know you don't like them?" Syndrome fired back. They laughed again.

They went silent as a guard approached them. "Sir, we're arriving at Nomanisan," he said. "We'll be landing in a minute or two."

Syndrome nodded shortly to him, and the guard turned and left.

After a moment, Kauri said, "So, what should I expect to find on this lovely little island paradise of yours?"

"Beaches, lots of parrots, and a lot of really cool high-tech machines that I invented," Syndrome said, grinning broadly. "You'll like it."

"And I'm sure you'll want to show everything off to me in the morning," Kauri said, rolling her eyes.

"Of course!" Buddy exclaimed. "After we eat, of course. Breakfast is the best meal of the day."

Kauri smiled a little bit, and then turned to look out the window again. "I see lights," she said.

They began to descend rapidly, and Kauri fell silent. Mirage watched her old friend somewhat worriedly. She didn't seem to feel as though the conversation had helped her much. If anything, she looked even more confused now than she had before.

Syndrome seemed to notice Kauri's distress, too. "What's up?" he asked quietly as the jet touched down on the landing pad.

Kauri sighed. "Nothing much," she said. "Just… thinking about things."

"Care to give me an example?"

"Not now, Buddy. Maybe later."

Syndrome nodded shortly and looked away. Mirage noted with interest that he didn't correct her use of his real name. If she had been anyone else… but she wasn't. She was Bex, and Syndrome would probably let her get away with murder - literally.

The same guard who had alerted them of their arrival at the island returned to their seats. "Sir, we're ready to unload," he said. "Shall we go?"

"Yes," Syndrome said, standing up. Mirage got out of her seat and departed the jet before him. Bex followed closely with Syndrome and several guards behind her. She glanced at them somewhat nervously.

"I feel like a prisoner," she muttered.

"Technically speaking, you are one," Syndrome pointed out. "I did just kidnap you, after all."

"So I'm going to be sleeping in a cell?" Kauri said, looking unhappy at this prospect.

"Aw, come on, Bex. I wouldn't do that to you. But, just to make sure you don't get away and all that jazz - you'll be sleeping in _my_ quarters."

Mirage rolled her eyes. _Right. Just to make sure she doesn't get away or anything. Tell us another one, Buddy._

Kauri seemed to agree with Mirage's thoughts exactly, since she snorted shot Syndrome a glance over her shoulder. "Uh-huh," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Your quarters, right? So I don't escape, right? Why not just a cell? It'd probably be safer."

"Pay attention to where you're walking, Bexer," Syndrome muttered, dodging her questions.

Kauri shook her head and turned back to the front again. "Well, _this_ should be interesting…" Mirage heard her mutter.

Mirage had to agree.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Well, if the Wicked song below does not make this apparent, and if you haven't checked the story rating, this happens to be a story with sex in it. It's not all that graphic, but it's there. And this (if you hadn't guessed) is the chapter in which the sex scene happens. It's not until the end, and if you don't want to read it you should at least read to the point where they're making out on the kitchen floor, because there's important background information being revealed. So don't say I didn't warn you, because I did. So there.**

- - - - - - - - -

_Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight_

_I need help believing you're with me tonight_

_My wildest dreamings could not foresee_

_Lying beside you with you wanting me…_

**- "As Long As You're Mine" from _Wicked_**

The fortress was impressive. Kauri couldn't hide her amazement at all that Syndrome had managed to build on this remote island. There were so many high-tech gadgets everywhere she looked - many of which Kauri recognized because she had helped to design them. "Quite a place you've got," she said, glancing over her shoulder to meet her captor's gaze.

He smirked. "Remarkable, isn't it?" he said.

"And its builder is so modest, too!" Kauri said, turning back to the front. "I really admire your ability to live with your ego being the size it is. It's very impressive."

"I'm glad you approve." She could just picture the smirk still crossing his face. Sometimes his habit of looking so self-righteous irritated her. Sometimes it made her want to smack him across his little adorable freckled face. Sometimes it made her want to kiss him. It all depended on her mood, and exactly what he was being smug about. Today, it was simply amusing.

"Well, guys, I believe I can handle this from here," Syndrome announced to the guards as they approached a doorway into the fortress. "You can all return to your duties." He glanced in Mirage's direction and added, "You, too, Mir."

She raised an eyebrow questioningly, but turned without speaking and walked away, leaving Syndrome and Kauri alone.

"So…" Kauri said somewhat nervously.

"So?" Syndrome repeated, meeting her gaze head-on. "Need anything before bed? Food, for example?"

"Food sounds… great," Kauri admitted.

Syndrome turned on his heel. "We'll get it in the room. Now, come on. I have a secret passage to my quarters that we can go through."

"Oooh!" Kauri exclaimed excitedly, running after him. "So I'll get to see exactly how to sneak into your bedroom?"

"Nope," Syndrome said, turning so suddenly that Kauri practically ran into him. He held up a strip of black fabric and dangled it in front of her. "I like you, Bex, but I'm not sure I can trust you."

"Fine," Kauri sulked. "Be that way."

Syndrome smiled, and then tied the midnight-colored fabric over her eyes.

"I hope we don't have to walk far," Kauri muttered. "I can't see a damn thing and I'm going to have fun trying not to bump into things."

Syndrome's hands closed tightly on her upper arms. "Don't worry," he breathed in her ear. "I'll guide you."

His close proximity was already starting affect Kauri's judgment. She decided that this was probably not a good thing, but that she didn't really want to care _what_ was good or bad. "Okay," she said quietly.

"Walk."

It was odd, having to entrust her ability to move to her nemesis. It was annoyingly like those trust-building exercises that they force children to do in school, but it seemed to have a positive effect. As long as Syndrome guided her rightly, Kauri felt safe - safer than she had in a long, long time. For some reason, this made tears spring to her eyes. "Damn," she muttered angrily.

"You ok?" Syndrome asked worriedly, stopping. "I didn't run you into anything, did I?"

"No," Kauri said. "I just… it's… oh, I don't know. Girls are just too damn emotional, that's all."

"Oh." There was an awkward silence, and then, Syndrome said uncertainly, "Can we keep walking?"

"Yeah," Kauri mumbled, embarrassed.

Syndrome gently pushed her forward a little, and she began to walk again, slowly. She was still afraid of running into something. But, after awhile, she relaxed and allowed him to guide her movements. It was much simpler than being tense and stopping every five seconds.

Slowly, Kauri began to notice that things sounded different. There was a clanking in her footsteps that indicated they were walking on metal. Also, light penetrated Kauri's blindfold. "We're inside," she said.

"Very observant, _querida_. We're inside the fortress, but we're not to my rooms yet. Keep walking."

"What does 'querida' mean?" Kauri asked curiously.

"Sweetheart."

"Ah," she said. "Your favorite pet name. Spanish, is it?"

"Yes."

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Kauri could not help wondering how odd she looked right now, practically leaning backwards into Syndrome while still attempting to walk with the blindfold on. "I feel kind of like an idiot," she told him.

He released her, reached up, and untied the blindfold. It fell away to reveal a hallway that was covered entirely in metal sheeting. "You don't have to anymore," he said. "We're here."

Kauri glanced at the wall ahead of her and saw a large, circular doorway. Syndrome passed her and approached it, removing his left gauntlet as he did so. He pressed his hand to the middle of the door, and the circle in the center glowed a very bright green. Then, he spoke to it. "Syndrome," he said. He glanced over his shoulder and continued, "Add new entry."

A robotic voice came over the system. "Blank entry prepared."

Syndrome motioned for Bex to come closer. She obeyed. A light appeared out of nowhere and ran across her eyes. Then, while she was still attempting to recover from this violation of her sight, Syndrome pressed her hand to the center of the door. She felt a small burst of heat against her fingertips, and then the voice spoke again. "Retinal scan and fingerprints confirmed. State your full name and rank."

"Your rank would be 'guest,' for now," Syndrome informed her quietly. "So?"

She stared at the door curiously, but spoke to it anyway. "Kauri R. Bexer, Guest," she said, feeling even more like an idiot than ever.

"Identity confirmed. Please state your password."

Syndrome spoke for her this time. "Pine," he said. He glanced at her and said, "Don't forget that. If you do, you won't be able to get into anything and you'll set off an intruder alert."

"Right," she said. "I'll remember that."

The door chirped at them, and then asked, "Would you like to enter this room?"

"Yes," Syndrome told it.

The door slid open without further comment. Syndrome walked in without hesitation and snapped, "Lights!" They flashed on to reveal an extraordinary set of quarters.

The room they had entered was quite spacious, and in it were a large couch, several chairs, a large television, a table to eat at, and no less than three computer terminals. "Still a computer junky, I see," Kauri commented dryly.

"You were expecting me to have become a jock?" Syndrome demanded from another room. "You said you were hungry."

"I haven't eaten since breakfast," Kauri said, following the sound of his voice. "Where are you?"

"In the kitchen."

"That's certainly useful, Buddy," Kauri said sardonically. "Where the hell is the - oh."

She'd managed to stumble into another large room that had a table in its center and was lined with refrigerators and cabinets. Syndrome was busily digging through one of the refrigerators, looking for something decent. "How's lasagna sound to you?" he asked.

Kauri's stomach responded loudly for her.

Syndrome chuckled and shut the refrigerator door. "I'll take that as a yes," he said, turning with a large dish of lasagna in his hands. "Let me heat it up first."

Kauri dropped down onto one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen table. "So, while we're waiting for dinner to get cooked - why'd you bring me here?"

"I thought you could use a vacation."

"Ha, ha. You're hilarious. I'm serious, Buddy."

"So am I," Syndrome said, turning to face her. He sounded a little hurt.

"I thought you said you wanted to talk to me," Kauri said.

He looked uncomfortable. "Maybe later," he said.

Kauri sighed in frustration. "You kidnapped me and brought me to your island so that you could ask to talk to me later?" she asked. "You are a piece of work, my friend."

"Listen, sweetheart," he snapped. "It hasn't exactly been easy figuring out what I want to say to you - or why I even want you here! I just - I - I just needed to see you again, okay?"

Kauri waited for the rest to come.

Syndrome started to pace anxiously around the floor. "It's just so weird, seeing you again," he said, raking his hands through his hair nervously. "I mean, I thought you were gone - just, totally gone from my life - after college. And then, I saw that picture of you as Static, and it was like - I dunno - I just had to see you. To make sure you were okay. And now that you're not okay - call me stupid, or whatever - I just feel like you need some help, I guess."

"I appreciate the sentiment," Kauri said honestly.

He was quiet for a moment. Then, he continued, "Look, Kauri, I really, really missed you while you were gone. I've wanted you here on this island since the plans first came into being. I could never see it operating without you."

"It seems to have been operating fine to me."

"I know!" Syndrome exploded angrily. "But _I_ haven't been fine without you! If you had been here you wouldn't have let all of these stupid things happen - if you'd stayed you would have stopped me killing all those Supers, I know you would have, and then I wouldn't feel so horrible right now!" He gave an angry sigh, and dropped into the chair across from Bex's, his head in his hands. "I… I can't… I just feel so… _guilty_. I… I killed people without any good reason, and I… I thought I was doing something _right_. If you'd been here, you would have told me I was wrong. You wouldn't have let me turn into… into some kind of _monster_."

Kauri stared at Syndrome as silence settled around them. He had changed so much since college. Of course, so had she, but somehow, the difference in him broke her heart. He'd always been bitter, but never so confused and lost. It scared her to see someone she cared about so much suffering like he was.

He looked up at her, and she realized he was on the verge of tears, although trying to hide it. "Bex," he whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for everything I've done - to you, and to all the other Supers. I didn't… I didn't understand… I didn't think…"

Bex got up from her chair, walked over to him, and hugged him. "I know," she said softly. "I know."

He started to sob into her shoulder, and Bex made every attempt to comfort him. There wasn't much she could do, though. They both had so many scars from so many things in the past, and it would take time for them to heal. Bex was acutely aware of this, but, all the same, she wished there was an easier way.

"Buddy…" she started to say, but at that moment, the oven dinged loudly.

Syndrome lifted his head and sniffed, wiping tears from his cheeks. "Your food's ready," he said.

Kauri smiled half-heartedly. "You want any?"

"Nah," he mumbled. "I'm not hungry."

"You should eat something," she said, standing up and going over to the oven. "Food always makes me feel better."

"Then you can develop a bad eating habit," Syndrome said. "You know, when you eat every time you feel bad?"

"Yes, I know," Kauri said, pulling out the pan of lasagna. "I didn't mean you should eat every time you feel shitty. But sometimes eating something helps you think more clearly."

"I don't need my thinking to be any more clear than it is," Syndrome said miserably. "My brain is working much better than it should be."

Kauri dropped a few slices of lasagna on a plate that he'd set out for her, found a drawer with silverware, and grabbed two forks. She turned, set the plate on the table, and pulled up a chair. She held the fork out to him and said, "Dig in."

He glanced at her and looked like he was about to protest, but she spoke again. "I can poke your eye out with this fork, you know," she said, waving it threateningly.

"All right already!" Syndrome said, rolling his eyes and grabbing the fork. "You sound like my mother."

"I do not," Kauri said evenly, taking a chunk of lasagna from the plate. "I knew your mother very well and she _never_ told you to eat more food. In fact, I think I remember her telling you that you were too fat on numerous occasions."

"My mother was a bitch," Syndrome said, viciously stabbing the lasagna with his fork.

"The lasagna is not your mother," Kauri said reproachfully. "Don't take out your anger on it."

"Bex, the lasagna is an inanimate object," Syndrome said, starting to smile.

"No! It's my friend!" she exclaimed. She pulled it protectively toward her and said, "Its name is Fredwina. Not that you would care. You don't even bother to ask its name before you eat it, do you? Bet you don't know what its life's ambition is."

"Enlighten me," Syndrome said with a laugh, taking another stab at the lasagna.

"Its life's ambition is to be eaten by a pair of Superheroes," Kauri announced somewhat dramatically. "And it's so lucky because we get to fulfill that ambition just before it dies."

Syndrome shook his head, still chuckling. "And you call _me_ a piece of work," he said.

Kauri laughed and took another bite. "You're a piece of work, and I'm a weirdo," she said with a little shrug. "Two types of people that tend to click very well."

"So I've noticed," Syndrome said. They ate in silence for a bit, until he spoke again. "Bex, do you love Eric?"

She swallowed her mouthful of lasagna very slowly and deliberately and set down her fork. "Why do you ask?" she said cautiously.

"Well, I'm assuming you've been dating awhile," he said, leaning forward in his chair. "And you don't seem to want to leave him."

"He'll kill me if I do," Bex said quietly.

"You _think_ he will," Syndrome corrected. "So you don't love him."

"It's hard to love someone who destroyed your life," Kauri said bitterly.

Syndrome looked at her significantly. "Is it?" he questioned. "Fooled me."

Kauri looked up, startled. "Buddy, I - well, I didn't ruin your life, first of all - "

"Sure you didn't, Bex," Syndrome said scathingly. "Never mind the fact that I locked myself away on this island for years after you left. Never mind that I would've killed myself had Mirage not been there to support me. Never mind the fact that I only dated one person after you, and that was Mirage. If you didn't ruin me, you at least hurt me a hell of a lot more than pretty much anyone else had. In fact, the only person who hurt me more was probably Mr. Incredible. 'So, Buddy,' you ask, 'Why don't you fall in love with Mirage, since she's been so wonderful to you over the years?' I've tried that, Bex, believe me, and it hasn't worked. I saw that you were still around and I knew - I just knew - that I had to be with you again. I could forget everything you'd done to me, if I just knew I'd see your face again." After a moment of silence, he said, "Love's a bitch, isn't it?"

Kauri had, by this point, looked away. "Yes, it is," she said softly. "I didn't break up with you because I hated you, you know. I wanted nothing more than to stay with you. It was just - you hated Supers so much. I thought, if you knew what I was - " She stopped, and then looked at him painfully. "I thought you would kill me."

Syndrome looked horrified at this notion. "Bex, I couldn't kill you," he said. "Not ever!"

"How was I supposed to know that?" she asked, looking away again. "How am I supposed to know that Eric won't kill me if I walk out the door? How was I supposed to know that being a hero is definitely not all it's cracked up to be? How are _we_ expected to know that love's a bitch?" She sighed angrily and muttered, "The world sucks."

"Generally speaking, yes," Syndrome agreed. "Mirage and I had this discussion the other day. But there are still a few good things in the world. You, for example."

Kauri laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I'm a really great person," she said. "I sit around and let my boyfriend beat the shit out of me and allow him to spend all the money I earn on beer. I am a world-class citizen, tell you what."

"It's not your fault that Eric's an ass," Syndrome said quietly.

"It's my fault that I can't leave him," Kauri retorted.

"You're afraid."

"And _whose_ fault is that again?" Kauri demanded. "Mine. I shouldn't have to _be_ afraid."

Syndrome shook his head. "No, you shouldn't," he agreed. "Bex, stay here. With me. You'll be safe."

Kauri started to twist a ring on her hand around her finger in repetitive circles. "The other Supers will come after me," she said.

"We'll take care of them."

"You'd better not kill them," Kauri said harshly.

"I said we'd take care of them, Bex," Syndrome said. "I didn't say we'd kill them."

"Typically, those two phrases, when used in conjunction, mean the same thing."

"Bex, I really wish you'd trust me for once," he said with an angry sigh. "I'll give everything up - the destruction of the Supers, revenge on Mr. Incredible - _everything_ - if you'll just stay with me."

For a moment, Kauri seemed like she was going to agree. Then, she said, "What about Eric? What about my job in Metroville?"

"Who cares?" Syndrome nearly exploded with rage. "Bex, Eric beats the hell out of you almost every day! How can you possibly want to go back to that?"

"It's not _him_ I want to go back to," Kauri whispered. "It's the job. It's being a Superhero."

"_What!_" Syndrome snapped.

Kauri stared at the floor. "My father was a Superhero," she said. "And I've been gifted with powers, just like he was. It's my duty to the people, isn't it? To help them?"

"You just want to be a hero, don't you?" Syndrome spat.

Kauri glared at him. "I'd expect you to be able to understand that," she said.

"Not with your life experience," he snarled. "And not with mine. But you know what? Do whatever you want. Go back to Eric. Get beaten every day. Let him throw you through the damn-fucking wall. Why should I care? It's not my business what you do. And, let's face it, being a hero is worth it. Saving people who don't give a damn about you as a person, really, makes life meaningful and worthwhile. No, I totally understand. Go back to Metroville and have fun. Tell Eric I said 'Hi.'"

He started to storm out of the room, too furious to say anything more to Bex. He felt even angrier with himself when he heard Bex choking back a sob and his body stopped dead, despite his mind's insistence to keep walking and let her cry. She deserved it.

No. She didn't.

_Dammit, dammit, dammit!_

Syndrome sighed in frustration, and then turned in the doorway. "Bex…" he said, a lot more gently than he'd actually intended to.

Bex looked back at him. The pain on her face sliced him to the core. He walked right back through the door and knelt by her chair, wiping tears of her face and whispering comforting words in her ear. She was still crying hysterically (something she seemed to be doing a lot of lately, he'd noticed - not that he blamed her), but she seemed to feel at least slightly better now that someone was consoling her. "Bex… sweetheart… calm down," he said softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I really didn't… oh, Bex, stop crying, _please_ stop crying…"

He leaned back slightly and studied her face. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks, and she was attempting to choke back sobs. She looked at him almost pleadingly. "Buddy…" she whimpered.

He leaned forward and kissed her.

It shouldn't have been the right thing to do, but it seemed to work. She started to calm down almost immediately and returned the kiss anxiously. Once Buddy thought she'd relaxed a bit, he pulled back from her, breathing hard, and said, "Jesus, Bex, you act like you haven't been kissed in ages."

She shrugged slightly, blushing. "Eric's too drunk most of the time to do anything," she said.

"Aw, Bex," Syndrome said sympathetically. He started to kiss her again, and then pulled back and whispered, "You deserve better."

"I don't suppose - mmmff! - you'd happen to know where I could _find_ 'better?'" Kauri asked between kisses.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Syndrome said, with his typical smug smirking face. "But my kneeling by your chair is not exactly the most comfortable position. Come here…" He caught her arms and pulled her off the chair and onto the floor. "Mmm," he mumbled. "Much better."

Kauri was feeling rather guilty about kissing her nemesis like this, particularly since she had a supposed boyfriend. Never mind the fact that her boyfriend beat her; he was still her boyfriend, and he deserved some sort of faithfulness.

"Wait," she said, pulling back from Syndrome.

Syndrome looked surprised, and then angry. "What?" he demanded.

She chewed her lip nervously.

"This had better not be about Eric," Syndrome growled.

She sighed and closed her eyes. "Well, I am sort of dating him…"

"And you're never going back to him!" Syndrome snarled. "At least, not if I have anything to say about it! And if you _insist_ on going back to your hero work, what happens on Nomanisan stays on Nomanisan, all right? Good enough for you?"

Kauri had practically chewed a hole in her lip by this point. "But, Buddy, it's… it's wrong…" she said, looking extremely upset. She tried to stand and walk away. "I can't do this. I just… can't."

Syndrome leapt to his feet and went after her. "Bex, _listen _to me," he hissed, grabbing her arm and refusing to let her escape. "What do you have to lose?"

"Admittedly, not a lot," Bex said unhappily, "But pride comes to mind."

"And what's that worth to either of us?" Syndrome demanded. "Eric hates you. He takes away your pride _daily_. He throws you against walls. And who knows what he does while you're gone? There's plenty of women out looking for action, Bex. Don't be so naïve as to think he'll just ignore them."

"Shut up," Bex snarled.

"You know I'm telling the truth," Syndrome continued. It wasn't exactly fair of him to say this, especially since he had no proof, but he was almost certain he was right. "He doesn't love you. You told me so yourself. Guess what, sweetheart? I _do_ love you - a hell of a lot more than he does. I won't hurt you like he has."

"Shut up!" Bex screamed, hiding her face in her hands.

Syndrome forced her to look at him "You're telling me to shut up because I'm telling you the truth, which is more than you can ask for from Eric," he said with brutal honesty. He studied her face for a moment and then asked, "What are you afraid of, Bex? That you're wrong about me? That all the other Supers are right and I'm actually the evil one? But think about it. Just _think_ about it. If I'm the evil one… then Eric is the good one. Isn't that the way it always works, in these little love triangles - there's the good boy, and there's the bad boy? Well, if Eric's the good one - is that really the type of hero you want?"

He waited for Bex to respond, but she seemed to be choking on her words. She stared almost blankly up into his eyes. "I - I - Buddy -!"

He kissed her cheek ever so chastely. "Come on, Bex…" he whispered. "What harm will it do? Just this once… just while you're here… let me make you happy…"

He heard Bex swallowing painfully. She was starting to breathe heavily. She relaxed slightly in his arms and allowed his lips to wander down her neck.

She was going to give in. She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her. _YES! _"Bex," he purred.

She shifted and kissed him hard on the mouth. "Mmmm…" he groaned and dragged her closer. "Oh, Bex… I love you… I really do…" he gasped out, almost a promise, almost a reassurance.

She pulled back slightly and studied him. "I know," she said after a moment of silence.

He grinned and then hungrily pressed his mouth back to hers.

Bex's conscious screamed, _Stop! What the hell are you doing! You're with someone else! He's a murderer, he's a villain, he's wicked…_

_But he loves me… Eric hates me… I know he's not all bad… what do you want me to do?_

_Do what's right._

_This **is** right. I can almost feel it._

_Almost isn't enough._

_It's enough for me._

Bex tuned out the war that was attempting to tear her soul apart and returned Syndrome's kiss, hard, losing herself in each touch, in each wave of pleasure. If she could just ignore those battling voices… just forget them… let it all go…

She beat them into submissive silence, much as Eric did to her, and then let Syndrome take over every fiber of her being. He was glad to oblige her in this respect. They stood there a long time, his mouth pressed hard against hers, until he pulled back after a moment. He caught her hand and pulled her wordlessly from the kitchen, and she followed without objection.

She knew where they were heading. She'd agreed to it, hadn't she? But her heart still jumped a little when the door in front of them slid open to reveal Syndrome's bedroom. He must have guessed she would be a little bit frightened, because he glanced back at her concernedly. "You ok?" he asked.

She nodded slowly, taking in the room. Every room in Syndrome's quarters was big, but she was still astounded by the size of everything - the huge closet, the dressers lining the walls - the bed facing a wide-open balcony doorway, revealing a beautiful moonlit ocean view. She glanced at the bed and raised an eyebrow. "Looks like the sort of bed you need lots of company in," she said, turning to meet his gaze.

Syndrome smiled sheepishly. He was so damn cute when he blushed. "Mirage is pretty much the only girl on the island," he said. "And she has her own room. Most of the time."

"Ah," Kauri said. "I see."

"Not since you've been in the picture," he added hastily.

Kauri smiled. "I know," she promised. "I'm dating somebody else, anyway. It's not like you have to be faithful to me until the day you die."

She smiled at him and walked over to where he was standing, and starting kissing him again. "Mmm," he murmured. "You know, for being out of practice, you're pretty damn good at this," he informed her.

She giggled and lightly began to kiss all the freckles crossing the bridge of his nose. He wriggled away from her and leaned his head against her shoulder, kissing her neck. "Aw, come on," she said, tilting his head back up again. "I love your freckles so much. You're not going to deny them a few kisses, are you?"

"Yes," he said, entwining his fingers with hers. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am, much as I appreciate your adoration of my face blemishes."

"Freckles, baby," she corrected, ignoring him and planting another kiss on the bridge of his nose.

"Hey!" he said, pushing her away. "Quit it!"

She pouted and dropped onto the bed. "I think I'm going to cry," she said.

"No you're not," Syndrome said, rolling his eyes, but Bex began to sniffle very convincingly. He looked concerned. "You're not, are you?" he asked.

Kauri hid her face in one of the pillows and started to shake, like she was crying. "Bex!" he exclaimed, dropping onto the bed next to her.

She rolled over, laughing hysterically. Syndrome slapped her playfully. "Dammit, Bex, you had me worried there for a second!" he said.

She giggled. "Aw, he worries about me," she said. "That's so cute."

"It's only natural," he said. He caught her arms and pinned them to the bed. "And now for the fun part," he said with an almost wicked grin.

"Uh-oh," Kauri said, eyebrows shooting up. "He has plans for me."

He smirked. "Oh, yes I do, Bex," he purred. "I have a lot of plans for you."

"Now I'm really frightened," she said.

"Ooh, don't be," he said, bending over and kissing her neck. "I think you'll like them."

"You're probably right," Bex agreed, pulling him closer. She ran her hands down his back and whispered in his ear, "So, exactly how _does_ one get Syndrome's supersuit off? Or is this a dirty little secret that I can't know, for fear that I'll reveal it to villain fangirls all over Metroville, who will mercilessly attack you and use my knowledge to undress you in public?"

"I have _fangirls_?" Syndrome said in such an excited voice that Kauri laughed.

"I think almost _every_ semi-famous person has fangirls," she said. "Or boys, as the case may be. But I, personally, am your number one fangirl, and considering that I'm currently in your bed, I want to know how to get your supersuit off."

Syndrome pretended to consider. "Hmmm," he said. "Should I tell her the secret, or shouldn't I? Maybe I should blindfold you again, so you can't see, and then we can play a few fun little bondage-domination games…"

"I thought I told you I wasn't into that sort of thing," Kauri said, kissing his cheek.

"Damn," Syndrome joked. "And I was so looking forward to that, too…"

"Oh, shut up, you nerd," she mumbled.

"Oh, _nerd_, is it?" he said. "Forget ever learning how to take _my_ supersuit off."

"I was just kidding!" Kauri cried. She actually looked so panicked that Syndrome had to laugh.

"You're really cute, Bex, you know that?" he said, kissing the bridge of her nose lightly.

"How come you can kiss my nose and I can't go anywhere near yours?" she demanded.

"Because I'm the man," Syndrome whispered. "And men can do whatever they want."

"Oh _yeah?_" Kauri said. "Wanna bet?" She caught his arms and flipped him neatly onto his back, pinning him to the bed. "Ha!" she said, smiling smugly. "Gotcha!"

Syndrome pouted. "Come on, Bex, let me up," he commanded.

"No."

"Bex."

"Nope. Definitely not letting you up."

"_Bex._"

"Well… no."

"_Bexer!_" Syndrome growled.

"Oooh, hear him roar," Kauri said with a smirk, rolling her eyes. "I guess you just can't handle a Super."

Syndrome snarled at this and then caught her arms tightly and flipped her onto her back. He grinned, eyes gleaming, and said, "Who's super _now_, Bexer?"

Kauri laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "So are you _so_ Super that you can actually have sex in your Supersuit, or what?" she asked.

Syndrome smiled at her. "It's really not all that complicated, Bex," he said. "Speaking personally, I would try unhooking the belt first."

Kauri released him and moved her hands downward, casually playing with the lock on his belt. It unsnapped under her fingers. She pulled it off and studied all the weapons attached to it. "Watch out," she warned. "You could hurt somebody."

"That's kind of the point, isn't it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kauri studied his face briefly, and then reached up and pulled off the mask hiding part of his face from view. She smiled at the vast array of freckles now revealed to her and the gingery eyebrows, one of which was still cocked at her. "You're adorable," she said to him, sitting up and kissing him.

He smiled and hid his face in her shoulder again. "Aw, he gets shy all of a sudden," she said with a giggle.

He sat up and gave her a dirty look. "I'm not shy," he muttered.

"You're cute when you pout." She pulled the top half of his supersuit neatly over his head, leaving his red hair disheveled.

He glanced in a mirror and said, "Damn. The hairspray's not holding up anymore."

"I like you with your hair down," Kauri said. She reached up and combed his hair flat with her fingers, and watched as a few strands fell into his face. "You should leave it like this more often," she advised.

"In a ponytail," he said. "I don't feel like being mistaken for you." He caught her around the waist and pulled her closer. A few seconds later he'd pulled her shirt over her head. "Ah, yes," he said, rolling his eyes. "The fun part. I always wonder how the hell you girls get your bras on and off so easily."

Kauri rolled her eyes. "It isn't that hard, Buddy," she said. "Seriously."

"Easy for you to say," Syndrome muttered, "You've been wearing one since you were twelve."

"Well, I'm sure if you wore one you'd figure it out, too," Kauri said, biting back a smile.

Syndrome smacked her lightly. "If that's what I have to do, I think I'd rather struggle," he said.

Kauri rolled her eyes again and then reached back and undid it for him. "There," she said. "You happy?"

"You didn't even give me a chance," he said sulkily.

Kauri leaned against him and said, "You'd better hurry up, Pine. I'm freezing."

"So lose the jeans and get under the covers," he advised, but he wrapped her up in his arms anyway and starting kissing her forehead. "Mmm… Bex, I missed you."

"I missed you, too," she said quietly. "A lot more than I ever told you."

He smiled into her hair. "I'm glad you're here," he whispered.

Kauri snuggled closer to him, closing her eyes. "Me, too."

He tilted her chin up and pressed his lips against hers. She broke the kiss first and glanced at the ground. "So, do you ever plan on taking those rocket boots off?" she questioned lightly.

Syndrome glanced at them somewhat mournfully and said, "I guess…"

Kauri slapped him and pulled back from him, tugging her jeans off and kicking them onto the floor. "You know, if you keep stalling like this, it'll be morning before we get anywhere," she said casually.

"_Stalling?_" Syndrome repeated in disbelief. He kicked off his rocket boots and finished undressing so quickly that Kauri had to laugh. He pounced on her and pinned her to the bed, and whispered in her ear, "I don't stall."

"So what are you doing now?" Kauri asked. "It's typically a bad idea to start monologuing before sex, you know."

"Then shut up, Bex."

Before she could open her mouth to retort, he'd started to kiss her again, hard. Bex closed her eyes and lost herself in his embrace. There was no Metroville here, no Supers, no drunks - just the two of them, exactly where they belonged. No inner voices plagued her thoughts now; there was only a deep internal calm, and an emotion that she'd long ago thought she'd forgotten how to feel - happiness.

She pulled back and whispered, "Buddy?"

He moved to kiss her neck. "Yeah?'

"I love you."

She felt his smile against her skin. "I love you too, Bex."

He brought his mouth to hers again, and she deepened the kiss hungrily. Syndrome would have smiled, if his mouth had not been so preoccupied with other things. He ran his hands across her skin, down from her shoulders to her arms, from her arms to her sides, and down to her hips. His fingers gracefully stroked her skin for a few moments, feeling tiny goose bumps despite his close proximity to her and the sheet that they were wrapped in. He pulled her closer to him, kissed her hard, and joined with her.

It was almost perfect, this blissful union, almost _innocent_, if one could ever call lovemaking innocent. It wasn't the desire to take from another; it was seeking solace in a fellow sufferer's arms, and finding peace. Every caress, every kiss, every cry, every whisper of the other's name into the dark, was meant from the heart. It was pleasure, and it was utter, heart-breaking pain, with the knowledge lurking nearby that the real world would have to be faced at some point, that this night could not last forever, and that reality would set in much sooner than either of them desired. It was everything either of them had ever wanted, and yet, it was not quite enough.

But it would suffice, for now.


	11. Chapter 11

_The heart may freeze or it can burn_

_The pain will ease if I can learn…_

_**- "Another Day" from Rent**_

Syndrome and Kauri did not appear at breakfast the next morning. Mirage was not particularly surprised, but she _was_ somewhat irritated. She'd been looking forward to seeing Kauri and catching up with her - and maybe, she admitted, she was a little jealous that Syndrome had so easily replaced her.

Of course, it _was_ Bex. Bex had always been his favorite. She was the one who did everything right, who made living worthwhile, who made all the business plans fall into place. Bex was the one he really wanted as sidekick extraordinaire, second-in-command, business manager, and lover. Mirage had sort of been a filler, someone who was there to briefly replace Bex while she was no longer present. She should have expected to be shunned as soon as Kauri arrived.

It was not a good feeling, to realize how unimportant you really were in the scheme of things. She'd realized it when Mr. Incredible had threatened her life, and Syndrome hadn't cared. Or, maybe, he'd cared just a little - but not enough to attempt to save her. If it had been Bex's life threatened, he would have released Mr. Incredible within minutes.

It made her angry that she felt this way. It made her angrier that the pair of them were only encouraging her feelings of abandonment by hiding away all morning. It was probably her anger that made her storm up to Syndrome's quarters at around eleven a.m.

"Mirage," she said to the door, tapping her foot impatiently. It performed its typical retinal scan and handprint identification, and then demanded her password. She typed "Synluvsme" into the keyboard that was presented her by the door. The keyboard withdrew and the doors slid open.

Mirage walked rapidly through the rooms, the path to Syndrome's bedroom long ago memorized. She approached the bedroom door and pounded on it. "Syndrome?" she called. "Bex? Are you up yet?"

She heard Kauri giggle. "You mean 'up' as in 'awake' or as in 'out of bed'?" Bex asked.

Mirage tapped her foot angrily and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, it's eleven fifteen," she said icily. "I think you should be getting out of bed now."

They both seemed to notice that Mirage was upset. "You ok, Mir?" Kauri asked worriedly.

"Yeah. I'm great," she said irritably. "I just _expected_ to eat breakfast with my two best friends, and they just _happened_ to ditch me."

"Hey, chill out," Syndrome snapped from inside the room. "We're sorry, ok? We've just been talking and stuff."

"Yeah. Right. 'And stuff,'" Mirage said bitterly. "What _have_ the pair of you been doing all night, anyway?"

"Are you jealous?" Syndrome demanded. She heard Kauri whisper something, and Syndrome laughed.

Mirage frowned angrily and pushed open the door to the room. Kauri was cuddled up on top of Syndrome, and he had his arms wrapped around her waist. His hair was hanging flatly in his face, and Kauri was playing with it. "So, am I included in this joke?" Mirage asked coldly.

"Wow, she really _is_ jealous," Syndrome muttered in amazement. Then, he said, "All Kauri said was that we could always do a three-way…"

Mirage smiled a little. She glanced at Kauri, and then started to giggle, and then she burst out laughing, uncontrollably. "I'm sorry, guys," she said between laughs. "I just… I was just feeling a little left out, I guess…"

"Aw, Mir, you know we love you," Syndrome said. "I'd hug you, but I kind of have a Bex on top of me."

"And you're naked," Mirage pointed out.

He shrugged. "It's nothing you haven't seen before," he said.

Kauri had started to put little braids in Syndrome's hair. He waved her hand away and started to undo them. "No braids," he said reproachfully. "I'll wear it down. I'll even put it in a ponytail. But no braids."

Bex pouted and made an attempt to cuddle closer to him. How this was possible, Mirage wasn't entirely sure, but she still managed to seem successful.

Mirage studied them curiously. It was the oddest thing, how different they were together. When she'd been dating Syndrome, everything was so _business_-_like_. It was almost as though there was some sort of unofficial contract between them that read, _We will have sex on these set days and we will enjoy it and then we will curl up on opposite ends of the bed and pretend it never happened._

And then, here was Bex, making sure every inch of her body was in contact with every inch of his at every second, and he seemed to like it. Mirage almost wondered if it was simply her preference to be aloof that had made every part of their relationship seem so formal. Bex had always been friendlier with people, more relaxed. Maybe that was why Syndrome preferred her to Mirage.

Kauri looked up, breaking Mirage from her thoughts, and said, "So, what's for breakfast?"

Mirage laughed. "Breakfast was hours ago," she said. "It's almost lunchtime. I trust you'll be ready to get out of bed by noon?"

"Yeah," Syndrome said, studying Kauri's reclining form. "Just give us a second…"

Mirage rolled her eyes and stepped out of the room. "Don't take too long, Syndrome," she called as she shut the door.

"I wasn't planning to," he shouted after her.

She just shook her head and laughed quietly to herself. "I'll be waiting in the entry room," she informed them, and then she stalked off down the hall to wait.

- - - - - - - - -

Bex was in a little whirlwind of bliss. It was a great feeling, she thought almost dizzily, to be this happy, to feel this loved. She had long ago forgotten how wonderful it was to be in love, and to be loved in return. She was painfully aware that this state of being was extremely fragile, and she was terrified that stepping out of bed would shatter the dream.

Syndrome seemed to reciprocate the feeling. "Well," he said uncertainly. "I guess we should be getting up…"

Kauri nodded slowly, but made no attempt to force her body to move. "I don't want to go," she whispered after a moment.

"Yeah, I know," he said. He kissed her forehead lightly and said, "But I really don't think it would be a good idea to piss Mirage off anymore."

"I know," she muttered, disheartened.

Syndrome bit his lip, studying her carefully, and then he tilted her chin upwards and kissed her again. "Hey, cheer up, _querida_," he said. "We've still got tonight. In fact, we've got as long as you choose to stay here." He gave her a significant look. "Which, of course, means that the longer you stay, the more time we have…"

"… So why not stay forever?" Kauri said, finishing the sentence for him. "All right, all right. I get the point. I stay with you and I'll be immensely happy for the rest of my life, plus I will have the most amazing sex life of any woman in the Universe."

Syndrome chuckled and wrapped one of her red curls around his finger. "I'm glad you think so," he said, allowing the curl to spring back into place.

Bex smiled brilliantly at him and then made an effort to disentangle herself from the sheets and Syndrome (Syndrome more reluctantly than the sheets.) "Come on, Syn, let go," she said with a laugh.

"No," Syndrome said sulkily.

"Syn, you have to share me with the world at some point, you know," Bex said, struggling to escape his death grip around her waist.

"No! This Bex is all mine!" he said. He flipped her onto her back and pinned her beneath him, grinning wickedly. "And I have some plans for my Bex…"

Bex shook her head. "We have to get up. Seriously. And if you screw me again, I won't be able to get out of bed."

"Good," Syndrome said. "I don't want you to get out of bed. Weren't we just discussing that?"

Kauri pushed on his chest and shoved him off. He made an effort to catch her before she could escape, but she made it out of bed before he could. "Bex…" he whined unhappily. "Come back!"

"Aren't you even in the slightest bit hungry?" Bex asked.

"No," Syndrome pouted. Of course, at that exact moment, his stomach made a noise. "All right, all right, fine," he said grudgingly. "I'm hungry. I'm starving, in fact. But, _Bex_…"

"Get up, loser," Bex said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed her shirt from where it had been discarded the night before and started to dress.

Syndrome made a face at her and then reached for his wrist-control. He snapped one on his wrist and zero-pointed clothes from his closet, bringing them over to him.

Bex raised an eyebrow. "I'm amazed at your laziness," she said. "Your closet is maybe five steps from your bed. I think you can manage to walk that far without dying."

"That's what you think, Bexer," Syndrome said, pulling on a t-shirt and jeans.

Bex grabbed a ponytail holder from Syndrome's dresser and pulled her hair back. "You obviously wear your hair back in a ponytail sometimes."

"Only when I'm working." Syndrome got up and pulled his own hair back. After a moment of silence, he said, "So I was thinking that today we could go to the beach and swim or something."

"I have no swimsuit."

"I don't object to skinny dipping."

"Well, I do," Bex said. "I'll borrow one of Mirage's suits. Of course, that girl has no hips… it could be interesting trying to fit in any of her clothes."

"You'll handle the pressure," Syndrome said confidently. "And then after we go swimming I could give you the grand tour if you want… show you all the facilities we've got and stuff. You've _got_ to see the transports I built. They're the coolest things ever! And the velocipods are - "

Suddenly, an alarm sounded loudly throughout Syndrome's rooms. He looked up, startled, and then his eyes narrowed. "Intruders," he hissed.

"On the island?" Bex asked, alarmed.

Syndrome ran to a computer terminal located on the opposite side of the room and started clicking away. "Approaching us from the North-West," he said. He pressed an intercom button and said, "Jason, are you reading this?"

"Roger, Syndrome."

"Any ideas as to who it might be?"

"No idea, Syndrome," Jason said apologetically. "We're trying to confirm - " He stopped suddenly and then announced, "Receiving a transmission from the jet, sir."

"Play it."

A man's voice came over the intercom. "Syndrome, we know you have Static! Release her now or we'll report your base of operations to the authorities and they'll have you locked down before you can say 'bomb.' Request immediate response, over."

Syndrome swore angrily. "Mr. Incredible!" he snarled. "He's here for you!" He drew in a deep breath and then turned to look over his shoulder at Kauri, who was biting her fingernails worriedly. "Well, baby? What do I tell him?" he asked.

Kauri looked uncertain. "Don't respond," she said after a moment.

"Honey, I can't just not respond," Syndrome said in exasperation. "He's got a lock on my location and he'll be calling for government back-up any moment. I'm going to tell him you're here and you're perfectly safe, ok?"

"But don't say anything about Eric."

Syndrome's eyebrows shot up. "What?" he snapped.

"Don't say anything about Eric," Kauri repeated emphatically. "I don't want them to know…"

"Oh, so it's ok for _me_ to look like the bad guy here, but your boyfriend who's the real asshole has to stay clean," Syndrome said harshly. "I see how it is. Fine. If that's the way you want it…" He pressed the intercom button and spoke into it. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Mr. Brawn-Not-Brains. Long time no see, my friend."

"Where's Static?" Mr. Incredible demanded. "Give her back to us!"

"Static," Syndrome said bitingly, "Is just fine. She's being given the premium Nomanisan treatment."

"I know what that's like," Mr. Incredible muttered.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Syndrome said mockingly. "No, Mr. Incredible - I mean, Mr. Parr - God, what a lame name - Static didn't even have to sleep in a cell. In fact, she slept with _me_ last night, and you can feel free to share that information with her loving _boyfriend_ if he happens to be on board."

From the angry exclamation they heard in the background, it was relatively clear that Eric _was_ in fact on board the jet, and not particularly happy about that little tidbit of information. Neither was Mr. Incredible. "If you've done anything to hurt her - " he hissed.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Syndrome said nonchalantly. "She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself last night. I had trouble getting her out of bed."

Kauri was getting angrier by the second as she listened to Syndrome's running commentary. "Syndrome…" she hissed at him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Eric, did you have any idea how good your girlfriend is in bed?" Syndrome continued despite her hand pressing hard on his shoulder. "Apparently she doesn't think nearly so highly of _your_ talents. Shame. With you being a super and all, I just assumed you'd be better… but I guess not."

Kauri was furious at this new tirade Syndrome had just let off, and she sent an electrical charge shooting into Syndrome's shoulder. He yelped in pain and then leapt back from the computer console, cutting off communication. He whirled around and caught Kauri in a zero-point beam. "What the fuck was that for?" he demanded.

He dropped Bex onto the bed, and she sat up, glaring at him furiously. "Gee, I wonder," she said sarcastically. "Could it be the lengthy mocking of my boyfriend, or the mention of that fact that we had sex last night when you promised not to tell?"

She started to get up, but Syndrome zero-pointed her once again. "You know what, Bexer?" he said heatedly. "I don't care. You wanted me to play the bad guy, so I did. Deal with it."

He turned back to the computer and hit the transmission button. "Listen," he said to the Supers on the other end. "Kauri is just peachy. You don't have to worry about her. In fact, if you should worry about her when she's with _anyone_, it's her own boyfriend. Oh, but that's right - I'm not supposed to mention that. Forget I said anything."

The line crackled with static. "What the hell are you talking about?" Mr. Incredible demanded.

"I said to forget it," Syndrome said callously. "Look, I promise Kauri'll be returned to you by the end of the weekend. I just wanted to steal her to have a little fun. If I'm even two minutes late delivering her back to her dumpy little apartment, then you can come bust my ass out of here. Deal?"

Mr. Incredible's voice came over the line. "I want to talk to Static," he said.

Syndrome clicked the intercom off, released Kauri from the beam and let her drop unceremoniously to the floor. "Go ahead," he said, jerking his head towards the machine. "Talk to them. It's your game anyway."

Kauri stood, straightened her shirt, and then walked over to the console, where Syndrome was still standing. He reached over her to press the intercom button, his body brushing against hers. As he pulled back, he stopped, staring directly into her eyes. She stared back, almost losing herself in the churning icy blue depths.

"Stat?" Mr. Incredible sounded almost frantic. "Static, are you there?"

"I'm here," Kauri said dazedly, her eyes still locked with Syndrome's.

"Static!" Bob sounded relieved. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she said quietly.

"What?"

"I said I'm fine," Kauri repeated.

"Did you hear what Syndrome said?"

Bex nodded slowly. "Every word."

Mr. Incredible seemed to think her response was odd, but continued anyway. "Look, we'll get you out of there right now if you want us to."

"No, Bob, I'm ok," Kauri said. "I'll come back Sunday night at midnight. All right? And if I'm late you can come looking for me."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Bob asked worriedly. "I don't want him to hurt you."

Bex shook her head. "I'll be fine," she said again. "Don't worry."

"Well, if you think so…"

Before Bob could say more, Syndrome broke the gaze passing between them and clicked off the intercom button. He turned away from her and walked towards the other end of the room. "I have some work to do today," he said quietly.

"I suspected as much," Bex said faintly. She couldn't believe that, barely five minutes ago, they had been talking about walking on the beach.

"Mirage can show you around. I bet you two have a lot to catch up on anyway."

"I imagine so."

"Well, I'll see you later then."

Bex hesitated. "You don't want lunch?"

"I'll eat in my lab."

"Bad idea," Bex said. "You'll get food all over your machines."

"Fuck off, Bexer," Syndrome finally snarled. "I can run my own base."

Bex swallowed a lump in her throat. "I'm sure you can," she managed, and then she turned and ran out of the room.


	12. Chapter 12

_Just came to say goodbye love_

_goodbye love… goodbye love…_

_goodbye…_

_**- "Goodbye Love" from RENT**_

Bob Parr stared at the intercom unit on the jet's complex control panel as though waiting for Kauri to say something more, but only static greeted his wasted efforts. He hung up the small come unit with a look of concern. The transmission had come so rapidly, and been so strange, and ended so abruptly… "Should we…?" he hesitantly asked his wife and the two other Supers with him, Eric and Lucius. He looked almost hopelessly lost and confused.

"We've gotta bust her out," Eric said fiercely. "I won't let this asshole hold her in his compound and control her!"

"What did Syndrome mean when he said we should be most worried about Kauri when she's with you?" Lucius demanded suspiciously. "That didn't make _any_ sense… unless you're not telling us something."

Eric's jaw clenched. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said harshly. "It's all bull. Or maybe he's just referring to her betraying me. I mean, she _slept_ with him! He must have known how pissed off I'd be!"

"Eric, you have to kinder to her," Helen said firmly. "Syndrome could have forced her - or he could be lying."

This didn't seem to ease Eric's fears. "I still think we should go and bust her out and kick this guy's ass," he said.

Helen looked worried. "But what if he hurts her when we come in?" she questioned. "It might be better to wait and see if he returns her when he says he will."

"And wait for him to kill her?" Bob raged. "I can't do that, Helen! We've got to save her now!"

"If he was going to kill her, I think he would have done it already," Lucius said certainly. "Why the hell would he wait around when he's got her so conveniently trapped?"

"He could be torturing her, just for the fun of it!" Bob pointed out hotly.

"Nah," Lucius said. "He wouldn't waste his time and energy. He must have other plans. Maybe he needs her for something."

"What could he possibly need Kauri for, besides somebody to screw?" Eric demanded. "It's not like she has the most fantastic powers in the world or something!"

"Eric!" Helen said sharply. "Look, I think Lucius is right. Kauri sounded like she was ok, so I don't think we have to worry about her yet. I've just got this feeling… he's not going to kill her."

"Well, it certainly sounds like he's enjoying her company, anyway," Eric said savagely.

They were silent for a long moment. Then, almost painfully, Bob said, "We'll wait and see what happens, all right? But if she's not back on Monday, there'll be hell to pay."

- - - - - - - - -

When Bex finally found the dining room, Mirage was waiting with a fabulous array of foods. She looked behind Kauri curiously and then raised an eyebrow. "And where's the mad scientist?" she asked.

Kauri flopped dejectedly into a seat by Mirage. "He's über-pissed at me," she said unhappily. "He said he had some stuff to do. He's eating in his lab."

"That's stupid," Mirage said, delicately taking a bite out of a peach. "He'll get food on what whatever he's working on."

"That's what I told him. He told me to fuck off."

Mirage winced. "He really _is_ pissed, isn't he? What'd you do?"

"Gee, thanks for implying that I actually _did_ something," Bex said sarcastically. "The Incredibles and my loving boyfriend came to my rescue. Syndrome warded them off, but I asked him not to say anything about what Eric's been doing to me and now he's pissed because he says I'm making him the bad guy here."

Mirage chewed a second bite of peach contemplatively. "Well, that's sort of true," she said gently.

"It is not!" Kauri said indignantly. "He just made it worse for himself by mocking Eric and telling everybody I slept with him last night - "

"He didn't!" Mirage gasped.

"He did," Bex said sourly. "You can't even imagine how black and blue I'm going to be when I go back to Metroville."

Mirage set her peach down on her plate and frowned. "You're going back?" she said disbelievingly.

Bex shrugged. "Buddy told them I would be back by Monday," she said. "If I _don't_ go back, they'll be here to bust him, and I don't want that. I can bet he doesn't want it, either."

Mirage sighed heavily. "Maybe you could go back, meet them, and tell them you were planning on staying here and explain everything," she suggested.

Bex shook her head. "I can't do that," she said softly.

Mirage was starting to look angry. "Why not?" she demanded.

"I've got too much emotional baggage," Kauri said wearily. "Before I can stay here - and believe me, I'd like nothing better - I have to deal with my own problems. You know, figure things out. I don't want either of you to have to deal with my issues when I'm sure you've got stuff of your own going on."

"We can deal," Mirage said. "Really, Bex, we can."

"Yeah, well, _I_ can't," Bex said. "I've got to face things down myself before I can ever be ok. That means going back to Eric and… well… breaking up with him, I guess."

Mirage blinked in astonishment. "You're going to break up with him?"

Bex fiddled with some pasta on her plate. "Well, what else can I do?" she said slowly. "I can't keep living like this. You guys are right about that. But… I've got to work up the courage to deal with him. I've got to prove to myself that I'm strong enough to handle this… not as a Super, but just as a person."

Mirage looked stunned. After a moment, she said, "Well, I'd say that's a worthy reason to go back."

Kauri smiled halfheartedly. "I'm glad you approve," she said. "But I don't know that Syn will."

"He'll be thrilled that you're finally leaving this asshole," Mirage said assuredly. "Don't worry about it."

"He'll want to help me out, though," Bex said. "He'll want to come with me and kick Eric's ass, and nice as that would be, this is something I absolutely have to do alone. And if I tell him… _when_ I tell him… he'll want to go with me. I can't let that happen."

Mirage bit her lip. "I guess I can understand that," she said.

Bex sighed and then sat up. "Look," she said. "I need to get off the island today, while Buddy's still pissed at me and doesn't want to hang around me. If we make up, he'll never leave me alone and I won't have the chance to go anywhere. Can you get me a jet back to Metroville?"

Of course Mirage could. The head of security, Jason, was practically falling all over himself to date her, and he'd do anything for her if she asked. But she knew just how angry Syndrome would be if he found out she'd asked Jason to authorize Kauri's flight back to the mainland. He wouldn't want Bex going anywhere, especially when it involved something as important as this. Mirage would be betraying him yet again. But Bex was her friend too. And if this would help Bex…

"Yes," she said. "I can get you a jet. When do you want to leave?"

"Right now."

- - - - - - - - -

The morning had worn Syndrome's temper to a painful rawness. He'd been working furiously on the designs for his latest weapon - a zero-point pistol that could also fire laser beams - but the work had failed to distract him from the earlier events of the day. Usually designing and creating were the most effective therapy, but anything dealing with Bex was in a realm all its own.

Syndrome was startled from his thoughts by a timid knock on the door. He looked up and glared suspiciously at it, as though checking to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. However, the knock came again, louder this time. "Who is it?" he called.

"It's me." Mirage's voice filtered in from the other side of the door.

"Hi, 'Me,'" Syndrome said, turning back to his work. "I wasn't aware anybody with that name worked here. Come in so I can check and make sure I know you. And if I don't, you'll be vaporized on the spot."

"You're such a loser," Mirage said exasperatedly, and opened the door. She walked over to wear Syndrome was working and very apprehensively held out a note. "This is for you," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he said. "Any particular reason why you're so scared to give it to me?"

"It's from Bex."

"Oh," Syndrome said flatly, eyes narrowing. "An apology, I hope?"

"Not exactly," Mirage said nervously.

Syndrome unfolded the note and read it with growing consternation.

_Syn,_

_Listen, I'm sorry about this morning. I really am. I'm just really, really scared about everything, which you of all people should know. I hate feeling so weak, and I try to pretend like I'm strong enough to deal with things, but the fact is that I'm not. Not yet._

_Look, you shouldn't have to deal with this crap, and I shouldn't be making you the bad guy. You're right about that. It's not fair to you, because you're not as bad as everybody thinks you are, and I just made you seem a lot worse. I'm sorry for that, too._

_The point is that you're right about pretty much everything. (I can just picture that smug little smirk that's crossing your face right now as you read this.) I need to ditch Eric, and I'd be better off staying with you. Thing is, I can't do that with the way things are going right now. I have to go back to Metroville and talk to Eric and tie up all the loose ends. ALONE. You can't help me out here, Buddy. I know you probably don't understand, but I promise it'll all make sense later._

_I'm taking a jet back to Metroville so I can figure everything out. Don't come chasing after me. I've got to deal with all this by myself. I'll call you when I've got everything figured out and have explained what's happened over the past weeks to the other Supers - promise._

_xoxo,_

_Bex_

_p.s. Don't you DARE blame Mirage for any of this! If I hear anything about you attacking her I'll come back and beat you!_

"You authorized her jet take off?" Syndrome exploded when he finished reading.

Mirage backed away from him. "You _did_ read the p.s., didn't you?" she questioned fearfully.

Syndrome swallowed his rage, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. "Ooh, the things I should do to you," he hissed. "I don't think I even _have_ a torture device that would punish you enough!"

"Syndrome, she has to do this alone!" Mirage said almost pleadingly. "You've _got_ to understand. She won't be free from this situation unless she's dealt with it herself. I _had_ to let her go back!"

"You could have warned me first!" he snarled angrily, crumpling the note tightly in his gloved fist.

"You wouldn't have let her go," Mirage said scornfully. "You would have denied access to the computer and when Jason tried to give Kauri authorization he would be blocked, and she'd be stuck here, and she'd never have gotten off Nomanisan."

"Exactly," Syndrome said through clenched teeth. "That's why you should have told me"

Mirage shook her head. "That's why we _didn't_ tell you."

"Mirage, Eric's going to _kill _her!" All of Syndrome's frustration erupted from him in the furious shout. "He'll take her out and murder her - you just see if he doesn't! And if she dies, it's _your_ fault!"

"I believe it would be _your_ fault for mentioning to Eric that she slept with you, which is undoubtedly what would piss him off enough to kill her in the first place," Mirage pointed out. "Besides, Kauri's a Super. She can just use her powers and deal with him."

"Yeah?" Syndrome said hotly, starting towards the door of his lab. "Well, Eric's a Super too, doll face. And Kauri's never fought back before… what the hell makes you think she'll fight back now?"

"Because she loves you."

Syndrome stopped dead and turned around to face Mirage. "What?" he breathed, stunned.

"She loves you," Mirage repeated softly. "And she doesn't want you to have to deal with her baggage. She wants to come back and be with you - but she wants to be free of all the pain she's been dragging with her all this time. That's why she left. So she can let it all go and come back to you a better person."

Syndrome dropped onto a lab stool, looking utterly astounded by this revelation. "But… but she… but today she… _why_?" he blurted.

Mirage shrugged slightly. "Having never been in love, I'm sure _I_ can't tell you," she said. "You can ask her when she comes back."

Syndrome stared at the floor as though it held some answer. He stayed like that for several long minutes, although the amazed expression slowly disappeared from his face and changed to thoughtfulness. Finally, he spoke again. "I have to go to Metroville," he said.

"_No_, Syndrome!" Mirage exclaimed. "Weren't we just going over this? Kauri can't ha - "

"I'm not going to help her," Syndrome said, standing. "I have some other people to talk to."

Mirage looked suspicious. "Who?"

"The Incredibles."

"You know," Mirage said, starting to sound angry, "I don't think it'll win you points with Bex to go and wreak havoc in the lives of her friends!"

"I'm not _going_ to wreak havoc," Syndrome said. "I'm going to apologize."

Mirage's jaw dropped. "_What?_" she gasped. "You, _apologize_?"

Syndrome chuckled. "You don't have to sound so amazed," he said. "I _am_ capable of feeling sorry about things, you know."

Mirage was still gaping at him in disbelief. "I just - I can't - I - " She glared at him skeptically. "You'd better not be lying!" she said.

Syndrome laughed and then hugged her. Syndrome hadn't hugged Mirage for _years_. All Mirage could do was stand there in shock.

When he pulled back, he shook his head and smiled at the look on her face. "You know, the stupid gaping look really doesn't suit you," he informed her. "And I would close my mouth, if I were you."

Mirage's jaw snapped shut as though somebody had kicked it.

Syndrome turned and walked out of the room, boots clacking on the metal floor as he departed. Mirage regained enough of her sense to call after him, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

"Metroville," he called over his shoulder. "It seems I have some accounts to settle before I can actually live in peace. Sort of like Bex, actually."

With that, he disappeared down the hall, leaving a confused and thunderstruck Mirage to continue staring after him.


	13. Chapter 13

_Since you've been gone_

_I can breathe for the first time_

_**- "Since You've Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson**_

Bex was feeling extremely downhearted as she rode home in a taxi. Syndrome must have found out about her departure by this point - and she was almost worried that he would figure out some way of arriving at her destination before she did. Besides, she was returning into the black abyss - the miserable life and apartment that she and Eric shared.

She tried to comfort herself by saying that it would all be over soon, that the break up would lead to a small fight and then a rapid departure, and nothing more. Soon she'd be free of the chains of fear - free of all the heavy burdens she was carrying - free to do what she wanted. Free to go back to Syndrome.

"This where you wanted to go?" the taxi driver asked dubiously, interrupting Kauri's thoughts. Up until he had spoken, she hadn't even realized they'd stopped. He was studying the decrepit apartment building outside the window with distaste.

Bex sighed despondently. "Yeah, that's the place," she said.

"Doesn't look like the right spot for a nice girl like you," the driver said disapprovingly. "You sure you'll be ok?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding slowly. "I'm leaving this place today, anyway."

"Good for you," the taxi driver said. He turned around and said, "That'll be six fifty, by the way."

Bex handed the driver the money and stepped out of the vehicle with great reluctance. The taxi driver went off with a small wave, but Bex didn't notice it. She sighed again and approached the door.

One of the usual thugs was standing outside smoking. "'Sup, Bexer," he said, jerking his head in a motion of greeting.

She glanced at him. "I'm getting out of here tonight," she informed him.

He nodded slowly. "Better watch your back, then," he said. He nodded slightly towards the window of her apartment. "Your boyfriend got back earlier today, and he was pissed. Beat up three guys before stomping up to the room. You'll get the same treatment the moment you tell him that."

Bex shuddered involuntarily, but she forced herself to say, "We'll see about that."

The man snorted. "What, you gonna suddenly get the guts to fight back?" he asked disbelievingly.

"That was my plan."

He shook his head. "Good luck to you, Bexer," he said, throwing his cigarette into the ashtray by the front door and walking around the back. "Don't get killed. And don't leave any blood on the floor, either."

"Thanks," Kauri muttered sarcastically. She put her hand on the doorknob and pulled it open, walking inside.

She walked slowly up the stairs, reluctance growing in the pit of her stomach. Maybe she should just run. Maybe she should go back to Syndrome and let _him_ deal with Eric. Or maybe she should run to the Parrs and tell them the whole story. Bob'd kick Eric's sorry ass so hard -

But there was no time for that. She heard a door fly open and an angry snarl of, "Bexer!"

Kauri swallowed hard. "Eric," she choked.

He came storming down the stares, slowly, deliberately, his rage written on every corner of his face. "_'Eric, do you have any idea how good your girlfriend is in bed?'_" Eric repeated what Syndrome had said in a singsong voice edged with deadly fury. "Would you care to tell me how _he_ has any idea what your skills in bed are like?"

Bex crossed her arms over her chest and stood firm, despite the fact that she felt like running in the opposite direction. "You already know the answer to that," she said icily. "And I'm really surprised you care, since you haven't touched me since God-knows-when! Hell, you haven't even looked at me as _human_ in three years! I'm just your personal punching bag that you can use to take out your anger whenever you feel like it! Well, no more, Eric! It's _over_. I can't just stand here and take this anymore."

"Take it?" Eric repeated. "You _deserve_ it, you little slut! You ruined my life!"

"No," Kauri said scathingly, "You're the one who has done that. It's no one's fault but your own that everyone rejects you. Hell, you've even forgotten what it means to be a Super."

"You never knew what it meant to begin with!" Eric shouted.

The shouting didn't intimidate Kauri. After holding her emotions in for so long, she was letting them loose, like a dam being broken. "At least I'm not so self-righteous that I think it's only about the fame!" she hissed. "You pretend to save people while you let everyone else do the work and you expect everyone, even me, to love you and applaud and call you the biggest hero in the universe! Well, you can't do that anymore. You're _nobody's_ hero - least of all mine!"

The last words hit a raw, wounded spot in Eric's soul, and he snarled furiously and hurled a stream of fire at Kauri. Kauri ducked just in time, and the stream caught the ceiling above her head and lit a mean blaze, crackling and hissing.

In the split second that it took her to duck, Kauri felt the two halves of her personality come together, and she could almost hear the satisfying _click_ as they slid perfectly into one united piece. When she stood, she was no longer Bex, nor was she Static; she was simply Herself, complete and whole.

She looked at Eric briefly, studying the fury written across his features, and smiled complacently. Then, she raised her hand and knocked him flat with a bolt of lightning.

Eric screamed and writhed on the floor as the electricity ran through him, but the pain didn't keep him on the floor for long. He propped himself up high enough to aim a stream of water at Kauri. She turned and ran down the stairs, so that she could be standing on safer ground. Eric leapt to his feet and followed her, continuing the stream of water, putting out the fire on the staircase as he did so. "You won't get away that easily!" he growled, and lit a ring of fire around her.

In one fluid motion, Kauri crouched and then leapt over the blaze. The flames leapt higher, licking the soles of her shoes, but they weren't high enough to cause damage. She had escaped the first obstacle.

Eric swore profusely and put out the ring of fire, and then pointed towards the ground. Suddenly, mounds of earth busted through the floorboards, rising from beneath the wood and brick and blocking Kauri's path. The earth began to close over her head in an attempt to bury her alive, but Kauri was still wearing bits and pieces of her supersuit, which included what she liked to call an "ascension wristband." It had a rope and hook that would attach anywhere that she shot them. She aimed for the ceiling and watched as the hook leapt in the air and caught in the wood. Smirking, she climbed the rope nimbly before the dirt could collapse over her head, released the hook from the wood in the ceiling, and slid down to the floor.

Eric howled in rage and was after her in a flash, sending a tidal wave of water to flow after her. The wave rushed towards her at colossal speed and knocked her over, sending her crashing into the opposite wall. She groaned in agony, but she didn't have time to waste; Eric was rushing towards her through the water, ready to kill. Thinking quickly, Kauri plunged her hands into the water and set off the most incredible electrical shock of her life.

Eric stood in the water, sparking like mad, his mouth open in as he screamed in pain, but Kauri continued her attack. She watched him howling until it was only the shock of electricity that was holding him up, and then she released him. He fell face first into the water and laid there, completely knocked out.

Kauri stood. The power in the building had died as soon as she had begun her electrical attack, and people were coming out of their apartments and wondering what the hell was going on. Before anyone could notice her standing so conveniently at the scene of the crime, Bex turned and pulled open the front door. A river of water rushed out after her down the cement stairs of the building, drenching the man she had spoken to only ten short minutes before.

He swore as the water splashed over him and then looked up as Kauri went past. "What the fuck?" he said, by way of asking what had happened.

Kauri turned back to him and shrugged. "Waterline must've sprung a leak," she said with a brilliant smile, and then turned and went to the parking garage to get her car.


	14. Chapter 14

_Goodbye to you_

_Goodbye to everything that I knew_

_You were the one I loved_

_The one thing that I tried to hold on to_

_**- "Goodbye To You" by Michelle Branch**_

Kauri was in a surprisingly joyful mood as she drove to downtown Metroville to turn in her two weeks' notice at the university library. She hadn't thought that after getting attacked and almost killed she would be happy; but she supposed that it was the knowledge that she had finally escaped the oppressive life with Eric that was making her so cheerful.

Her smile disappeared almost immediately when she saw the Incredimobile parked haphazardly on the curb, and saw the Incredible Family standing outside a bank. "Great," she muttered. "Somebody broke into the bank, and I don't even have my supersuit."

Bex pulled over and leapt out of the car, and ran to stand alongside the Incredibles. "Hi, Bob," she murmured to Mr. Incredible. "Can I help?"

"Shouldn't you be on Nomanisan?" Bob said from the side of his mouth. "Why're you back so early?"

"I had some unfinished business here," Bex told him quietly. "And I'm sorry I didn't bring my suit. I had some trouble back at the apartment."

"Your suit's in the backseat of my car," Mr. Incredible informed her. "Where's Eric?"

"He got a little electroshock therapy," Bex said with considerable satisfaction.

Bob looked at her curiously, but before he could ask, Bex said, "I'm going to get my Supersuit. Be right back."

"Don't let anybody see you."

"Are you kidding? They're too busy watching _you_ to notice little ol' me."

Bex turned and ran casually down the stairs, past all the spectators who were waiting to see what the Incredibles' plan of action would be. People moved aside for her, but nobody noticed as she climbed into the backseat of the Incredimobile.

She slammed the door shut, turned back to find her supersuit - and gasped. "Syndrome!" she exclaimed.

He smirked. "Weren't expecting me, huh?" he said.

"No, I wasn't, actually," Bex said tersely. "Didn't I tell you that I didn't _need_ help?"

"You look like hell," Syndrome observed. "What have you been doing?"

"Electrocuting my ex-boyfriend. What have _you_ been doing?"

Syndrome's eyebrows shot up. "I," he said, "Have been sitting here watching the Incredibles do their work. I just got into town. I figured I'd talk to them - you know, apologize for all the stuff I did to them. Offer to pay damages to them and all the Supers' families and that."

Bex looked thrilled at this information. "Really?" she said. "You'd do that?"

"Yes," he said with a grin. "For you, I would do anything."

Bex made a face. "That's such an overrated line," she informed him.

He smiled at her. "When you think of something less cliché, let me know."

Bex shook her head and then said, "Turn around."

"Why?"

"I have to change into my supersuit."

"And that's a reason for me to turn around because…?"

Bex rolled her eyes and said, "Fine. Look all you want. But I have to help the Incredibles with these bank robbers, so don't expect to be making out with me for long periods of time."

"I'll save it for when you're not working," he promised.

Bex laughed and changed rapidly into her supersuit. When she had dressed completely, she snapped the visor over her eyes and then leaned over and kissed Syndrome lightly. "I love you," she told him softly.

His eyes glowed beneath the mask. "I love you too," he said.

Bex smiled at him and then pushed open the car door.

She ran nimbly up the stairs and pushed her way through the spectators once again. None of them recognized her. They all moved aside and began to whisper.

Kauri went to stand by Bob. "What's going on?" she asked.

"The robbers are still in the bank," he told her. "We think they have a bomb. We're waiting for them to come out."

"What if they're sneaking out around the back?"

"There aren't any doors."

"They could get out a window."

"What kind of bank has windows in the back?"

"There must be a fire escape or something back there," Bex pointed out. "I just think it's a little suspicious that they haven't tried to sneak out yet."

Bob considered this. "All right," he said. "You, Helen, and Violet go around the back and see if there's an entrance. I'll stay here with Dash and wait until Lucius and Eric get here, and see what happens."

Bex nodded slowly. Before she left, she said, "Just so you know and don't kill him or anything, Syndrome's waiting in your car. No, don't go after him!" She stopped Bob by placing her hand on his chest. "He wants to talk to you. To apologize."

Bob's eyebrows shot up. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said.

"Believe it, buster," Bex said with a grin. "All right, I'm taking the chicks around back. If we're not back in thirty minutes, come looking for us."

"If you don't communicate with us in fifteen minutes, I'm coming in," Bob said.

"All right, all right. Yeesh. Men are so overprotective." Bex walked over to where Helen and Violet were standing. "We're going around back," she informed them. "Just to make sure the creeps in there don't - "

At that exact moment, there was a huge explosion, and one side of the bank came crumbling down into a pile of rubble. Bricks flew in the air and tumbled downwards, smashing into pedestrians, other buildings, and the spectators of the scene. Violet screamed in horror and threw a shield around as many people as she could. After a few moments, Bex noted from the corner of her eye a similar shield, only blue, right next to them. "Looks like Syndrome's leapt into action," she commented.

Bob, who had been pulled into Violet's shield, turned to see if this was true and shook his head in astonishment. "You don't think these guys were working for him, do you?" he asked.

"Doubt it," Bex said. "I only left a couple hours ago, and he followed me. I don't think he had any plans to start making himself look like a hero."

"Why'd they blow the bank up?" Dash asked.

"Bex was probably right - they had some kind of escape route," Bob said. "They got out with the money and left a bomb in there. Now we just have to figure out where they went, once all the bricks stop falling and the paramedics clear the scene."

Violet looked around. "It's stopped raining bricks," she said. "Think we can drop the shield?"

Bob nodded, and Violet's purple shield disappeared. Syndrome followed suit a moment later. "Yeesh," he said. "Talk about a mess."

Bob glared at him. "I have no idea what you're doing here," he said, "But you'd better not cause any trouble. We've got a job to do."

Syndrome held up his hands in mock surrender. "I just came for her," he said, pointing at Bex. "I won't get in your way. Besides, Incredible, I've got some stuff to talk to you about. Once you're done, of course."

"Just… stay here," Bob said, glaring at Syndrome mistrustfully. He glanced at Bex and said, "As a matter of fact, Stat, why don't you stay here and keep an eye on him?"

Bex gave Bob the thumbs up and watched as he and Elastigirl ran up the stairs towards the site of the explosion, stopping only to tell their children to stay behind. Violet and Dash came up to Syndrome and Bex, looking dejected. "We never get to do anything cool," Dash said miserably.

"You'll grow up and get to do the 'cool' stuff someday," Bex promised, putting air quotes around the word 'cool.' "And then, trust me, you won't think it's so fun."

"Yeah, right," Dash muttered.

Suddenly, behind them, a woman screamed loudly. Bex and Syndrome whirled around at the same time, ready to leap into action - and then they both stopped dead.

Eric was standing there in his Elemental garb, holding a burning flame in his hand and looking murderous. "You worthless little bitch!" he snarled, and the flame disappeared from his hand. Instead, a whirlwind caught Bex and hurled her down into the middle of the street. A car swerved to avoid her, screeching and slamming into a tree on the opposite side of the road.

Syndrome gasped in horror and ignited his rocket boots, making an attempt to go to Bex's rescue, but Eric suddenly created a gust of air that blew Syndrome in the other direction. He smacked into a building and slid unceremoniously to the ground, groaning in pain.

Bex was on her feet again by this point and had run back to their side of the road. She shot a lightning bolt at Eric and snapped, "You want to kill me? Go ahead. You've been trying for a long, long time, and I'm still alive."

"Not for long," Eric replied, and spit fire at her.

Bex ducked and rolled beneath the spewing flames. "Hey, that's my father's stunt!" she yelled at her former boyfriend.

"It's a good stunt, too," Eric said sarcastically. "Just thought I'd borrow it, since your father's dead anyway."

The street fell away from beneath Kauri to create a gaping pit. She would have tumbled in - but Syndrome was back on his feet, and he dove and pulled her out just before the hole snapped closed.

By this point Violet and Dash had gotten over the shock of seeing one of their allies attempting to kill another of their friends, and they leapt into action. Violet had gone invisible and had sneaked up behind Eric. She trapped him in a shield and held him inside it. Even though he couldn't escape, however, he could still control the outer elements, and he created a wind so strong that it knocked her flat. Her shield dissipated into nothing, and Eric landed on the ground. "I'll deal with you later, Incredible," he spat, and then he leapt to his feet and went after Kauri and Syndrome again.

Syndrome caught him in a zero-point beam and threw him, hard, against a building. "You know, you really need some anger management classes if this is how you deal with break-ups," he called to the prostrate Super.

Eric grinned crookedly at him. "You fucking bastard," he wheezed. "You're gonna pay for this. You really are."

Syndrome snorted and turned his back on his nemesis. "Monologuing," he said disdainfully. "The dumbest thing a bad guy can do."

It has also been duly noted, although Syndrome apparently forgot, that it is an extremely bad idea to turn one's back on one's enemy when he's still alive. Eric could barely move, but he could move well enough. He rolled onto his stomach and raised his hand. A huge mountain of earth split the building he was under in half, and the wall tumbled towards the ground where Syndrome was walking.

There was no escape from the wave of falling bricks. Syndrome couldn't run fast enough to get out from under it and he didn't have time to react with a shield.

But Kauri had time to react. She saw the wall collapsing, and saw Syndrome's imminent doom. He couldn't run fast enough - but she could.

She dove behind him and pushed him out of harm's way, just as the bricks, concrete, and metal smashed to the ground.

Syndrome laid face down on the ground for a moment, dazed, until he heard a sharp gasp from Violet. He rolled over and looked towards the pile of rubble. His eyes widened in absolute horror as realization dawned.

"_KAURI!"_


	15. Chapter 15

_The tears dry, without you_

_Life goes on, but I'm gone_

_'Cause I die… without you…_

**- "Without You" from _Rent_**

Bob heard the horrible crashing sound from the front of the building, and didn't even pause to ask Helen what it was. Both of them turned in unison and ran to the front of the bank.

As they ran, they heard a shrill, piercing scream of dismay that could only have come from Violet, and then Syndrome's horrified exclamation: "_Kauri!_"

"Oh no!" Helen gasped, and both of them ran harder.

Bob and Helen tore down the front steps of what had once been the bank until they saw the nearby collapsed building and the silent crowd of horror-struck spectators. Bob pushed them aside so that he could get a better view of what was going on - and stared.

Syndrome was zero-pointing chunks of brick and throwing them into the street haphazardly, removing them from Kauri's limp body. Violet had dropped to the ground with her hands over her mouth and tears sliding down her cheeks, and she was repeating over and over, "Oh no… oh _no_…" Dash was staring at Kauri's body and kept tugging on Violet's arm, saying, "Vi, is she gonna be ok? Is she? Is she? Vi? Vi, talk to me!"

Syndrome had cleared enough brick to pull Bex free of the rubble, and he made to do so, but Helen pushed free of the crowd and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Don't move her," she said gently. "If her back's broken and you shift her too much, she could die."

Syndrome stared at her with an utterly empty, broken look that made Helen want to cry.

"She'll be ok, won't she, mom?" Dash demanded, running to his mother now and clinging to her leg in confusion.

"I… I don't know, honey," Helen said softly, still staring at the look on Syndrome's face.

Syndrome knelt beside Kauri's body and gently stroked her cheek. "Bex…?" he whispered.

Her eyes fluttered open. She smiled painfully at him. "Hey, baby," she murmured.

"You're hurt," he informed her, despite the obviousness of this statement. There was really nothing else he could say.

She closed her eyes and grimaced. "I know," she said. "But it's ok."

"No, it's _not_ ok," Syndrome said fiercely. "You're _injured_. When was that ever 'ok'?"

"Doesn't matter," Bex said quietly. "You're not hurt. That's what's important."

"Bex… _querida_… nobody would really care if _I_ died, but if _you_ - " he choked on the word. "… people will miss you."

"_I_ would've missed you," Bex informed him.

Bob stared at the sad scene in confusion, and finally took action. "Has somebody called an ambulance yet?" he snapped. "Don't just _stand_ there!"

One of the spectators said hesitantly, "But she's a _super_. Surely she's got some kind of healing powers or something?"

Bob glared at whoever had spoken. "Her power is to be a conductor of electricity," he said frigidly. "Not to heal herself whenever necessary. _Call a damn ambulance!_"

"They won't be able to do anything for her," Helen said wearily.

Bob whirled to face his wife. "Of course they will," he said angrily. "What do you mean -?"

"Bob, _look_ at her," Helen said, tears starting to slide down her cheeks. "They're going to pronounce it a lost cause as soon as they get here."

"Well, we can't just sit here!" Bob shouted. "We've got to do something!"

Syndrome looked over at them. "Maybe the paramedics here can't do anything," he said softly, "But _I_ can. I've got plenty of highly advanced medical technology on the base, and I've spent pretty much my entire career studying Supers, from their powers to their genetic material and all of that."

"Nomanisan's a long way away," Helen pointed out.

Syndrome smiled slightly. "See, it's always good to have minions around," he said. "When I flew in on my jet, I brought some of my people along, and they've got some of my advanced medical supplies here. They'll be able to take care of her for the ride." He jerked his head in the direction of the Incredimobile, which was now very dented but still in one piece and functional, thanks to a special outer shell built by the government's science labs. "My communicator is in there. The emergency code's 070288."

Bob ran to the car and found the communicator in the back seat where Syndrome had been sitting. He grabbed it and rapidly typed the code in. Once this was done he jogged back to where Syndrome was still kneeling by the wounded Superheroine. "Here," he said. "In case they contact you."

Syndrome took it from him and then turned his attention back to Kauri. "You're an idiot, Bexer," he said, smiling halfheartedly. "You're a stupid, stupid idiot, and next time you even _think_ about risking your life for mine I'll - "

"What?" Bex asked, smiling weakly. "Lock me in a containment unit and electroshock me? It's not like it'll even hurt." She laughed softly, and then started coughing, blood bubbling to the surface of her mouth. Syndrome gently wiped it away from the corner of her lip as it started to slip down her chin.

"Take it easy, _querida_," he said. "And whatever you do, _don't die_."

Bex forced a grin. "I'll do my best," she promised, and then she closed her eyes and let herself relax a little.

Bob had been watching the pair of them during this entire ordeal, and when he was certain their conversation was over, he said, "I think we need to talk."

Syndrome looked up. "About what?"

Bob nodded to Bex. "I'm wondering how _you_ ended up involved with Kauri," he said. "Since it's fairly obvious that you care a lot about her."

Syndrome looked down at her and gently ran his fingers through her hair. "We've known each other since we were kids," he said. "We dated in high school. Didn't break up until after college. She was supposed to help me with the company, but since we were killing Supers…" He shrugged slightly. "She quit. She never told me why. I found out on my own… after I escaped the jet explosion… I was furious when I found out she was a Super. I wanted to hurt her for her betraying me, but… well… when I saw what kind of life she was living… and when I was around her again… well, that just didn't work out.

"I was really confused about how I was feeling for her, so I came to her apartment and sort of 'kidnapped' her - don't look at me like that, she went willingly - and brought her back to the island so we could talk. And we did, and it was great, and everything worked out just like old times. And then you showed up and pissed me off and I spent the rest of the day hiding in my lab, and Bex came back here, and when I found out I had to follow her. She was planning on leaving Eric and I came back to apologize. The rest is history."

"She was leaving Eric for you?" Bob questioned.

"Yes, which is no surprise, since Eric beat her all the time," Syndrome said angrily.

"He _what?_" Bob repeated, stunned.

"He beat her all the time," Syndrome repeated. "And Bex was scared to tell anyone. She came back so she could face him down alone - and this is the result." He motioned angrily to the collapsed building. "Eric's the one who did this, you know."

Bob looked incredulous, but Violet and Dash both confirmed it. "It's true, Dad," Violet interjected. "He showed up and threw Kauri in the road. It was really scary. He threatened _me_ too, when I tried to stop him. He's the one who knocked the building down. Kauri leapt in front of it and pushed Syndrome out of the way."

Bob shook his head. "I had no idea," he muttered.

Helen sighed and looked ashamed. "I did," she said. "Some of the guys outside Kauri's apartment told me. But I didn't want to believe it… and Eric told me that Syndrome was the one who'd beat Kauri up and kidnapped her."

Syndrome looked up, infuriated. "He _said_ that?" he exclaimed. "When I came in, he was about to burn Kauri's face off!"

Bob opened his mouth to say something, but there was the sound of an alarm that cut across the conversation. A high-tech looking vehicle with a large blue "S" on the side came whizzing around the corner and stopped beside the road where Syndrome was kneeling. Mirage and Jason leapt out of the car. "Oh my God!" Mirage gasped when she saw Kauri. She ran to kneel next to Syndrome. "What happened?"

"Eric knocked the building over," Syndrome said wearily. "He was hoping to hit me, but Bex dove in front of it and knocked me out of the way."

"Oh God," Mirage repeated, her hand over her mouth. "Will she live?"

"We've got some of that medicine that allows the body to self-heal, don't we?" he questioned.

Jason nodded and held out a small vial. "We have a briefcase full," he said. "You'll want to wait for this one to start taking effect before we move her, though."

Syndrome uncapped the lid to expose a sharp needle. "Sorry, _querida_," he said gently to the very pale Bex, who had opened her eyes to see what medicine they were going to give her and promptly closed them when she saw the needle. "I know you have a phobia, but this'll save your life." He glanced at Bob, and a trace of his boyish smirk flickered on his face. "Watch while genius does its work," he said somewhat smugly. He inserted the needle in Bex's arm. She flinched, but held still while the vial emptied itself. When the last drop was gone, Syndrome removed it and capped it again.

He looked up at the anxious Super family and said, "I captured a Super whose ability was to self-heal. I did some experiments - don't worry, nothing painful - and ran some tests on her genetic material, and figured out how to replicate that power in a medicine. I tested it on myself several times. If you use enough, you can even regrow severed limbs."

"How'd you find that one out?" Bob asked, curious and repulsed at the same time.

Syndrome shrugged. "My arm got cut off in a machine I was building," he said. The entire Parr family winced. "I used up most of my supply of this stuff, just to test it, and the next morning my arm had grown back."

"It was creepy," Mirage said with a shudder. "I was forcing myself to adjust to a bloody stump and then he walked in with a whole arm. I thought it was a prosthetic for the longest time, but another guard cut his foot off in a doorway and we did the same procedure. It's really eerie watching it grow back."

Syndrome was now focusing his complete attention on Kauri. "How're you feeling, _querida_?" he asked.

"Vomitous," Bex said, making a face. "But not quite so sore. I think this thing's working on my back."

After a moment, there was a slight cracking noise, and Bex flinched, and then sighed in relief. "Yeah," she said. "Definitely my back."

"Well, it looks like we can move her," Jason said with a grin. "She'll live."

Syndrome looked immensely relieved at this information, and he pulled Bex out from under what rubble remained. "Your legs are broken, aren't they?" he asked.

"At least one of them is," Bex said, grimacing. "Wanna carry me?"

Syndrome was very obliging. He lifted Kauri from the ground and carried her over to the car. "I trust I have your permission to bring her back to Nomanisan for the healing process?" he said to the Parrs.

Bob hesitated, and then nodded. "But we'll be coming by later tonight to make sure you're not killing her or something," he warned.

Syndrome laughed. "What, after all that work?" he asked, smiling playfully. "If I wanted her dead, I wouldn't have wasted that medicine on her. That stuff's worth millions." He glanced at Bex, and his smile softened. "But Bex… she's priceless."

Bex grinned slightly. "You and your romantic cheesiness," she said, and cuddled closer to him.

The Parrs watched as Syndrome and Mirage slipped into the vehicle, and then watched as it drove away, until it was out of site. "Well," Bob said with a sigh. "Guess it's time for us to play the clean-up crew, huh?"

Helen nodded her head in agreement. "Come on," she said, and together the Incredible Family began removing bricks from the sidewalk.


	16. Chapter 16

_There's only us, there's only this_

_Forget regret or life is yours to miss_

_No other road, no other way_

_No day but today_

**- "Another Day" from RENT**

It took Bex nearly two months to fully heal, even with the aid of Syndrome's "miracle" medicine. She continued to be shaky on her feet and needed help walking after she'd been up for an hour. She also needed longer periods of rest and more food. She got headaches easily and often collapsed into bed with a pounding migraine, and no pain medication in the world could help her.

It was an unhappy trade-off, but Kauri never complained, and Syndrome was more than willing to deal. Mirage spent most of her days playing nurse and getting Kauri whatever she needed. Mirage, too, never complained about the lengthy recuperation. They cared too much about each other for that.

The Incredibles and their Super friends became frequent visitors to Nomanisan, at first only to see if Kauri was safe and then, gradually, to speak with Syndrome and figure just how much the damages would cost him. If parting with so much of his hard-earned fortune caused him any internal pain, he was careful not to show it. He signed the check for the enormous sum of money without even flinching. Admirable, perhaps; but the entire fiasco with Kauri had earned him a contract with the government and the NSA. He would soon be raking in more money than he had ever given away.

During the Incredibles' visits, Syndrome and Bob took to walking on Nomanisan's beaches and talking - not that the two were friends by any means. Conversations between them were limited to passing harsh accusations at each other and discussing financial issues, and the slight possibility that the NSA would be willing to admit Syndrome into the private club if he kept up fairly decent behavior towards the other Supers. One day, however, the conversation turned to Kauri Bexer, and what would happen once she was fully recovered.

"Kauri certainly seems to be enjoying life here," Bob remarked casually.

Syndrome glanced sharply at his former nemesis. "Yes," he said cautiously. "She likes it here. She loves water and the beach and all that. Never was one for the snow."

Bob nodded thoughtfully. "I don't know that she'll want to go back to Metroville," he said. "Too many painful memories. But I'll admit - and I'm sure you won't be in the slightest bit surprised - that I'm hesitant to leave her here."

Syndrome had known that was coming, but it still made him angry. "I won't hurt her," he said heatedly. "You really still think I'd do that, after all the work I've put in to making her better?"

Bob shrugged. "People work in strange ways," he said. "I can't understand them half the time. And all I'll ever really know about you - at least for now - is that I made a mistake that made you turn bad, and you tried to harm my family. You've saved Kauri, yes, but how can I know what your motivations are for that?"

"You'll have to trust me."

Bob shook his head. "I can't do that," he said firmly. "Not yet, anyway."

Syndrome kicked at the sand with a black boot. "So you're going to take Bex back to Metroville, is that it?" he asked, his voice deathly quiet and his eyes downcast. "You're going to take her away from me after all of this?"

Bob shook his head again. "No," he said. "That'd be the wrong thing to do, I think. Kauri loves you too much. I don't pretend to know why, but she does, and I don't want to separate her from the source of her happiness." Bob paused and looked thoughtful. "Ever since her father died, she's been so… _lonely_," he continued hesitantly. "Life's never been easy for her. You undoubtedly knew that already, growing up with her. Her mother's caused her so many problems, and Eric obviously wasn't any help… it killed her to have to leave you, but she thought you'd destroy her if you knew the truth. And then everything just happened so quickly… it's all taken its toll on her life. Taking her back to the source of all that pain… it wouldn't be right."

"So… she'll stay?" Syndrome asked almost hopefully.

Bob couldn't bite back the small smile that crossed his face. "Yes," he said. "She'll stay. But I'll expect to see both of you at the bimonthly NSA meeting, and if you don't show up without alerting us beforehand and making other arrangements to meet with me… let's just say you'll be toast. Got it?"

Syndrome saluted mockingly. "Got it," he repeated.

- - - - - - - - -

_A year later…_

The snobby Metroville restaurant was used to receiving large reservations for their dinner hour. In an average week, they received six such reservations, and they handled them expertly. It was the price of being the most sophisticated, uptown, popular and expensive restaurant in a city the size of Metroville, but the owner of the restaurant, Evan Ida, was perfectly willing to pay for such success.

He wasn't sure, however, that he was quite willing to go so far as to serve this particular group. The reservation for thirty-seven had hardly caused him a moment's trouble. He simply reserved the back room for the guests. But when he had asked what name to put the reservation under, the voice on the other end simply replied, "It's for the NSA - the National Supers Association. The Supers have a bimonthly dinner and this week they've decided to try your establishment."

Evan had almost dropped his phone in shock. "Supers, _here_?" he gasped. "Eating?"

"In their uniforms, of course," the man on the line said casually. "Their dress uniforms."

"They have dress uniforms?" Evan had managed faintly.

He had found out tonight that they did, in fact, have fabulous dress uniforms. These were impressive, more formal versions of their crime-fighting gear, including more elaborately decorated masks to hide their identities from potential enemies. He had recognized all of them the moment he walked into the room - the Incredibles and their children in sparkling red; Frozone in icy blue and white; Static in shimmering gold and black; and, most unusually, Syndrome, the infamous villain-turned-hero who had been building all sorts of machines for the Supers recently, in black and aqua blue.

Standing before all of these impressive personages now, Evan was almost literally quaking in his shoes. He managed to swallow his fear (nervously) and ask the question of waiters everywhere: "Can I take your orders?"

"I'll start!" Mr. Incredible volunteered enthusiastically. "I'd like - "

"Honey," Elastigirl interrupted quickly, laying a black-gloved hand on her husband's arm, "Don't order a ton, ok?"

Mr. Incredible looked slightly crestfallen. "I need to keep up my strength," he said.

"I _know_, honey, I know," Elastigirl said soothingly. "But that last time was just _ridiculous_!"

"All right, all right," he muttered. "I'll take two of your steak dinners - medium rare, please - "

Syndrome's eyebrows shot up beneath the mask. "You're really going to eat all that?" he said incredulously. "No wonder you've gotten so fat over the years."

"Gee, thanks, Syn," Mr. Incredible said, rolling his eyes. He was obviously used to such impolite remarks from Syndrome.

"Get off him, Syn!" Invisigirl, Mr. Incredible's daughter, snapped.

"Syn, be nice," Static said at almost the exact same time.

"Sorry, Visi," Syndrome said a bit insincerely to Invisigirl. He turned back to Static and kissed her on the cheek. "Sorry, baby."

Static made a face at him and then took a sip of her water, and motioned for Mr. Incredible to continue his order.

Evan coughed politely. "Can I get you anything to drink, Mr. Incredible?"

"A Heineken, please," Mr. Incredible replied.

"Heineken's disgusting," Syndrome said disdainfully.

"It's an acquired taste," Mr. Incredible retorted.

"I don't get why you'd want to acquire a taste for alcohol," Static said heatedly. "Alcohol only leads to bad things. I should know."

Somewhat surprisingly, nobody commented. In fact, the silence that greeted her words was somewhat awkward.

Daring to break the silence, Evan cleared his throat. "And what would the lady like for dinner…?" he asked, trailing off.

- - - - - - - - -

The waiter left after almost twenty long minutes, looking considerably harried at the amount of orders he had to fill. Syndrome waited until everyone looked as though they were deeply involved in conversation and said to Bex, "Hey, let's take a walk."

Bex nodded her agreement and stood, walking after him to a balcony overlooking the ocean. When they arrived, Bex leaned against the railing and studied the massive expanse of water. "It's strange to think Nomanisan's out there somewhere," she said half to herself.

Syndrome leaned against the railing beside her. "It's a comforting thought," he said.

Bex hesitated, and then said, "I'm sorry I've been so depressed lately. It's just…"

"Eric's birthday is today, right?" Syndrome said.

Bex nodded. "Yeah, yeah it is," she murmured. "I'm not sad that he died, you know. It's just… well… " She looked uncomfortable. "The first time he ever got drunk enough to actually hurt me…"

"Was on his birthday," Syndrome finished. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "Wasn't you're fault," she said. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm glad you're letting me stay on Nomanisan with you."

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist. "I don't think I could have let you leave to begin with," he said. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Bex said with a smile.

They stood there a moment, watching the sun sink into the ocean. Syndrome broke the silence with a simple phrase: "I've been thinking."

"Uh-oh," Bex said with a smile. "Should I be worried?"

"No, no," Syndrome said quickly. "I just… have been thinking about us."

"This sounds like you're going to say something cheesy and cliché."

Syndrome chuckled. "I'm trying to avoid that," he said. "But there really aren't many original, spontaneous, and un-cheesy ways to say, 'Will you marry me?'"

Bex drew in a sharp breath. "Hold up," she breathed. "Did you just…?"

"Yes."

"You asked me to marry you."

"Yeah. Spontaneously. Without all the cheesy gooshiness and stuff." He smiled. "I was going to go into some long, flowery, and extremely romantic speech, but then you made your comment about cheesiness and clichés…" He turned to her and held out and opened box with a sparkling diamond ring inside. "So…?"

"Yes," Bex said immediately. "Yes, yes, a million and infinity times yes!" She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. When she pulled back, he was grinning. "So there's _your_ completely spontaneous and un-cheesy answer," she said with a brilliant smile.

He returned the smile and slid the ring onto her finger. "Does this mean our kids are going to be Supers?" he asked almost hopefully.

Bex laughed. "We'll see, Syn," she said. "We'll see… who knows what the future can hold?"

"Time Traveler," Syndrome said, raising an eyebrow. "The Super guy in there who can travel back and forth in time."

Bex rolled her eyes. "You ruin everything, you know," she said.

"Not this," he promised. "Never this." He pulled her against him and kissed her, and seemed intent on holding her forever, when Mr. Incredible came out and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sorry to disturb you," he said with a grin, "But the food's arrived."

Syndrome made a face. "Ah, well," he said. "I guess we'd have to go in to announce it anyway, wouldn't we?"

Bex smiled and took his hand. "Yes, unfortunately, we would," she said. "But in the meantime… I'm starving!"

With this they turned and walked back through the door, their backs to the brilliant red sun setting behind them.

_end_


End file.
